Greek Beliefs
The first references to dreams in the Greek culture are found in Homer’s epic poems, usually dreams had by the heroes in the poems. The practice of oneiromancy (dream interpretation) was considered a sign of civilization, and dream interpretation became a profession in Greece. Dreams were considered a passive experience by the Greeks, so one “saw” a dream, one did not “have” a dream. The earliest Greek view of dreams was that a real god made a visit by entering through the keyhole in the door, delivered a message at the bed, and then exited through the same keyhole. Later views were most likely influenced by Eastern Indian beliefs that the soul could travel without the body and have adventures or visit the gods. The earliest recorded dream book, appearing in the fifth century B.C, was written by Antiphon, an Athenian statesman.
Dreams were considered a vehicle for getting information and relief from physical suffering when sickness was involved. Prophetic dreams were sought through incubation at temples dedicated to Aesculapius. Aesculapius was a talented healer who was later deified. He was known for successfully curing many illnesses through the use and interpretation of dreams. Temples were created around his image for incubating and interpreting dreams. The temples were decorated with beautiful, carved, weaving snakes. Today’s modern medical symbol, intertwining and weaving snakes, was a symbol of Aesculapius. Snakes were thought to be a healing emblem.
When a person sought a healing or prophetic dream, the person had to refrain from sexual intercourse, adhere to a special diet, and bathe in cold water. An animal sacrifice, usually a ram, would be made and the dreamer would sleep on the animal’s skin. Aesculapius was then beseeched in prayer and the lighting of lamps. When it was time for sleep, the priests would say encouraging words to those seeking a dream. Through the power of suggestion and long preparation, the desired dream was often produced. Aesculapius would appear to the dreamer and indicate what type of medicine should be taken or what action to pursue. Sometimes his daughters, Hygeia or Panacea, delivered the message.
Hippocrates was alive at the same time as Socrates. While Socrates was thought to be the father of philosophy, Hippocrates was called the father of Greek medicine. The Hippocratic Oath that graduates of medical school swear to is derived from the writings of Hippocrates (the general statement is: the doctor promises to keep life going in the physical body in whatever way possible.) Hippocrates wrote a collection of material, and one of these texts was titled On Dreams. His theory was that the soul is passive and the sense organs of the physical body were predominant during the day, but during sleep, the soul then produces the images instead of receiving them. He believed in prophetic dreams, diagnostic dreams, and psychologically revealing dreams. He maintained that disharmonic dreams indicated somatic malfunctioning or psychological malfunctioning. He also believed that some dreams were simply “a wish of the soul.” He used dreams to diagnose illness on many occasions.
Plato was most interested in the emotional implications of dreams, and believed that dreams were a result of the “beast within” that appears only during sleep. Only by raising one’s ability to reason could one then experience dreams that are morally acceptable and then be healed of illness.
Aristotle was Plato’s student and he belittled the idea of others that dreams were of divine origin or that dreams could be interpreted astrologically. He argued that animals also dream, and the gods would never send dreams to such creatures. He had three small books called On Dreams, On Sleep and Waking and On Prophecy in Sleep. He speculated that dreams might be more closely related to the body’s internal sensations and awareness of external somatic disturbances, which then resulted in dream imagery. He also pointed out that dreams, upon awakening, influence waking life behavior, which then resulted in dreams seemingly being prophetic, whereas in truth, the dream only provided the idea and then the dreamer acted on it. He believed that coincidence was the most likely factor in prophetic dreams.
Another Greek physician named Galen felt that dreams had diagnostic utility. He carried out complicated operations based on the dream guidance he received. He claims to have saved many lives with dream diagnosis and dream prescribed treatment. He was the first to dissect human corpses in order to map the inside of the human body.
The Romans were heavily influenced by the Greeks and practiced dream incubation widely, despite the disdain of intellectuals. Cicero was a well known Roman critic of dreams and gave many contrasting interpretations of dreams as examples. He viewed dream interpreters with disdain, reflecting some of the feelings the public had toward necromancy. He concluded that dreams had such a huge variety of interpretations attributable to them that no interpretation could possibly be arrived at that was all inclusive and correct. There was no order or regularity in dream interpretation, so he proposed that the practice of divination by dreams be abandoned, for it oppresses the intellect.
Artemidorus of Daldis was a contemporary of Galen. He wrote the most extensive material on dreams called Oneirocritica, meaning “The Interpretation of Dreams.” He named himself Artemidorus of Daldis, instead of Ephesus where he was actually born, in order to memorialize the birthplace of his mother. He also wrote earlier works on augury (divination).
The Oneirocritica is an encyclopedia of dreams containing five books. The first three were intended for the general public, and the last two were intended for the private use of his son, a budding dream interpreter.
Book 1 of Artemidorus’ work deals mainly with dreams about the human body. It is well organized. He covers every human body part from head to toe, literally, and the dreams that one might have about them. He has other categories about bodily transformation, activities, food and beverage consumption, and sexual acts. Book 2 deals with dreams about objects and events pertaining to the natural world. He covers animals, weather, fire, bodies of water, the gods, the deceased, flying, numbers and clothing. Book 3 is a bit disjointed for it covers everything else for the general public that might be of concern for interpreting dreams. These are varying subjects and categories that did not fit into the first two books.
Book 4 contains suggestions to his son with regard to his role as a dream interpreter. It is a how-to book on techniques of interpretation. Given are the guidelines for the data needed about the dreamer, the necessity for the interpreter to know about the culture and background of the person seeking interpretation, and how to collect every detail about the dream that the dreamer can explain. Book 5 was a collection of 95 dreams that Artemidorus recorded and verified the outcomes of himself. These were intended as practice sessions for his son and to illustrate how the interpretation of the dream could vary only because the person who had the dream was a particular type of individual.
Artemidorus consulted with many dream interpreters for years in order to compile the information he had in his books. He went to many cities in Greece, Asia Minor, Italy, and the larger islands. He calls upon experience and testimony as the guiding principles for his statements in his material. Robert L. Van De Castle says in his book Our Dreaming Mind (1994), “The Oneirocritica can be considered the great-grandfather of all dream books and stands as an impressive monument to the dedication and diligence of its author.”
The Oneirocritica is the only surviving complete text from twenty-seven more dream books mentioned by Artemidorus that were in circulation in antiquity. We have only his comments about them to go by, but they seemed to be very limited in their content compared to Oneirocritica.
In his book Our Dreaming Mind (1994), Robert L. Van De Castle quotes Robert White, who translated Oneirocritica into English in 1975. In his preface, White says that dream study, “…continues to be a field with a future. It is also a field with a past… In a sense, Freud, Jung, and others were not so much innovators as restorers, since they were reassigning to dreams and dream-readings the importance that they had held in antiquity, and which they had lost in more recent centuries.”