- petarded2
- |
- Fabled Member
this is an ad for house, md
house is wrapped in twin snakes with wings. it's meant to resemble the caduceus, which is the greek god hermes' staff and is also associated with medicine.
this seems pretty straight forward: house is a doctor, he has a medical symbol around him. the design emphasizes his big smart-person head, and the twin snakes hint at the duplicity of the character (the doctor and the total ponce), and they constrict him, implying he is trapped between the two. hermes' role as a messenger between the mortals and gods parallels house's "miraculous" diagnostic abilities.
however, one can consider this: hermes was not the greek god of medicine, that was asclepius, who's rod looks like this.
in fact, the caduceus had nothing to do with medicine unit the early 20th century, when the u.s. medical corp mistook it for the rod of asclepius and used it as their symbol (similar designs, military intelligence, etc.)
hermes was a messenger and trickster, and his rod, prior to the medical corp mix-up, represented human vice, corruption, death, ignorance, manipulation, and greed. while this may very well be unintentional, the caduceus might have been intended as a statement about house's misanthropic world views and self-destructive tendencies.
[Edited on 12.23.2012 1:32 AM PST]