Dreams From Homer to Plato

Bibliographic Data

ID19476152
AuthorsJames Redfield (corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume15
Issue1
Pages5-16
Publication date2014-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchiv für Religionsgeschichte (BOOK_SERIES)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1436-3038 • E-ISSN: 1868-8888
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/arege-2013-0002
OpenAlexW2328780481
LanguageEN
Citations received4

In archaic and classical literature dreams often appear as independent entities that enter human consciousness as messengers or omens. In Homer a god can come in a dream-always in disguise-or can send a dream. Dreams are insubstantial, like the psychai; a psyche like a god may come in a dream. If a dream bears a message (which may be a lie) it declares itself a messenger; ominous dreams simply arrive and require interpretation-which may be erroneous. Insubstantial and deceptive, dreams occupy a territory between reality and unreality. The resultant ambiguities are explored at length in Odyssey 19, where a truthful, self-interpreting dream is told and rejected by the teller, who nevertheless proceeds to act as if she believed it. Later literature shows us specific rituals for dealing with dreams, and tells of their origin as children of Night or Chthôn. Sometimes exogenic dreams are contrasted with endogenic dreams, which may arise from organic states. Finally in Plato’s Republic we have an account of certain dreams as irruptions into consciousness of hidden aspects of the psyche

Art · Consciousness · Dream · Epistemology · Literature · Psyche · Psychoanalysis · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · Philosophy · Psychology

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