Caduceus is a continuation of the older Indo-European dragon-slayer motif. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (1913) pointed out that the serpent as an attribute of both Hermes and Asclepius is a variant of the "pre-historic semi-chthonic serpent hero known at Delphi as Python", who in classical mythology is slain by Apollo. One Greek myth of origin of the caduceus is part of the story of Tiresias, who found two snakes copulating and killed the female with his staff. Tiresias was immediately turned into a woman, and so remained until he was able to repeat the act with the male snake seven years later.
Rainbow Serpent For example, The Rainbow Serpent Festival, an annual music festival in Australia, and the Rainbow Serpent Project, a series of films which document the filmmaker's journey to various sacred sites around the Earth, are both inspired and named after the creature. Furthermore, the Rainbow Serpent is used in art as a subject, even as an assignment in art classes. For children, it is often used to teach colors and symbolism; for older art students, it is used to teach painting techniques. Many Aboriginal Australian artists continue to be inspired by the Rainbow Serpent and use it as a subject in