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Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. This volume centers on dreams in Greek medicine from the fifth-century B.
Hippocratic Regimen down to the modern era. This volume examines how in Greek culture dreams have played an integral part in formal and non-formal means of healing. The papers are organized into three major diachronic periods. The first group focuses on the classical Greek through late Roman Greek periods. Topics include dreams in the Hippocratic corpus; the cult of the god Asclepius and its healing centers, with their incubation and miracle dream-cures; dreams in the writings of Galen and other medical writers of the Roman Empire; and medical dreams in popular oneirocritic texts, especially the second-century C.
The second group of papers looks to the Christian Byzantine era, when dream incubation and dream healings were practised at churches and shrines, carried out by living and dead saints. Also discussed are dreams as a medical tool used by physicians in their hospital praxis and in the practical medical texts iatrosophia that they and laypeople consulted for the healing of disease.
The final papers deal with dreams and healing in Greece from the Turkish period of Greece down to the current day in the Greek islands. The concluding chapter brings the book a full circle by discussing how modern psychotherapists and psychologists use Ascelpian dream-rituals on pilgrimages to Greece. This inspiring new book covers the practical side of dream interpretation during the therapeutic consultation.
It aids the understanding of sleep and dreams in a scientific context and provides and introduction to the biological and evolutionary foundations of sleep, dreams and dream interpretation, supporting its use in professional counselling. Apart from this sexual segregation, no more information is given about the dreamer, in connection with the interpretation of his or her dreams. If [it] so happens that [she] is [married], she will get ill.
He pays and urges his reader to pay the utmost attention to the dreamer, including his or her age, profes- sion, health, and financial status, for the interpretation of one and the same dream can be radically different depending on the specifics of the dreamer. He discusses the importance of this principle in the theoretical excursus within his Oneirocritica, such as those in I, 9 or IV, 21, and this precept can also be seen at work in many an interpretation of specific dreams, such as, e.
In the case of such dreams, where more than one element susceptible to interpretation occurs, one should deconstruct the dream to its single components, interpret each of these sepa- rately, and only then, from these individual elements, move back to an overall, com- bined exegesis of the whole dream. This seems at least to be the case in pChester Beatty 3, which describes different groups of men, listing and interpreting separately their dreams. See Szpakowska: Behind Closed Eyes n.
The correct reading of these lines was first established by Quack: Texte n. For instance, in pCarlsberg 14 verso, frag. However, most of the evidence of which he makes use is, in fact, from the hieratic pChester Beatty 3, rather than from later, demotic dream books.
Somewhat connected to wordplay are also certain plays on the etymology real or supposed and polysemy of words, similarly to the proceedings discussed by Arte- midorus too in IV, It is possible that what we have here may not be just a complex word- play, but a skilful play with etymologies, if, as one might wonder, the words syt and sty are etymologically related or, at least, if the ancient Egyptians perceived them to be so.
This is due to the very nature of the demotic script, which, unlike Greek, is not an alphabetic writing sys- tem, and thus has a much more limited potential for such uses. On the words here discussed, see the relative entries in Wolja Erichsen: Demotisches Glossar. Paris vol. The first appearance of Egypt in the Oneirocritica has already been quoted and examined above.
It occurs in the methodological discussion of chapter I, 8, 18, 1—3, where Artemidorus stresses the importance of considering what are common and what are particular or ethnic customs around the world, and cites Egyptian the- riomorphism as a typical example of an ethnic custom, as opposed to the corre- sponding universal custom, i. The next mention of Egypt appears in the discussion of dreams about the human body, more specifically in the chapter concerning dreams about being shaven. But for all others it is grevious.
The reason for the positive mantic value of this dream, which is otherwise to be considered ominous, is in the fact that priests of Egyptian cults, along with a few other types of professionals, shave their hair in real life too, and therefore the dream is in agreement with their normal way of life. The mention of priests of the Egyptian gods here need not be seen in connec- tion with any Egyptian oneirocritic tradition, but is, once again, part of the standard 46 Artem.
Artemidorus of Daldis, Egypt, and the Contemporary Oneirocritic Literature in Egyptian classical imagery repertoire on Egypt and its traditions.
The custom of shaving char- acterising Egyptian priests, in complete contrast to the practice of Greek priests, was already presented as noteworthy by one of the first writers of all things Egyptian, Herodotus, who remarked on this fact just after stating, in a famous passage, how Egypt is a wondrous land where everything seems to be and to work the opposite to the rest of the world.
However, as part of the long section treating dreams about the gods, one passage discusses four deities that pertain to the Egyptian pantheon: Serapis, Isis, Anubis, and Harpocrates. But their mysteries especially are significant of grief. On this passage, see Alan B. Leiden EPRO. In: Kernos 7 The four together thus form a coherent group attested elsewhere in classical sources, char- acterised by a strong connection with the underworld. Though no mention of Serapis is made here, it is remarkable that the nature of this predic- tion, and its wording too, is almost identical to the one given, in the chapter about chthonic gods, not with regard to Pluto, but about Serapis and his divine associates II, 39, , 14— The latter includes in his collection both this passage of Artemidorus as his text b and the others mentioning or relating to Serapis texts 83i, b, c—d, c , to be discussed later in the present paper.
XIX—XX, e. Further, Plutarch also identifies Serapis with Osiris ibid. XXVII, e. Artemidorus of Daldis, Egypt, and the Contemporary Oneirocritic Literature in Egyptian ing them, when he explains that seeing these divinities or anything connected with them 51 means that the dreamer will go through or already is suffering serious af- flictions, from which he will be saved virtually in extremis, once all hopes have been given up.
Hence, these deities are both a source of grief and of ultimate salvation. This exegesis is evidently dependent on the classical reception of the myth of Osiris, a thorough exposition of which is given by Plutarch in his De Iside et Osiride, and establishes an implicit analogy between the fate of the dreamer and that of these deities.
For, as the dreamer has to suffer sharp vicissitudes of fortune but will even- tually be safe, similarly Osiris i. Before concluding the analysis of this chapter II, 39, it is worth remarking that a dream concerning one of these Egyptian gods mentioned by Artemidorus is pre- served in a fragment of a demotic dream book dating to approximately the II cen- tury AD, pVienna D However, this match cannot be considered spe- cific enough to suggest the presence of a direct link between Artemidorus and this Egyptian oneirocritic manual.
Certainly, it is not specific to this dream about Anubis, nor to dreams about gods only. As for Artemi- 51 This includes their mysteries, on which Artemidorus lays particular stress in the final part of this section from chapter II, Divine mysteries are discussed again by him in IV, This dream has already been presented in Prada: Visions n.
No mention of the other gods cited by Artemidorus is found in the surviving fragments of this manuscript, but even if these were originally present as is possi- ble, and indeed virtually certain in the case of a prominent goddess such as Isis , dif- ferent predictions might well have been found in combination with them. I there- fore believe that this match in the interpretation of a dream about Anubis between Artemidorus and a demotic dream book is a case of independent convergence, if not just a sheer coincidence, to which no special significance can be attached.
In the present section, I will briefly discuss these additional passages about him, but I will only summarise rather than quote them in full, since their rel- evance to the current discussion is in fact rather limited.
Here, no mention of Serapis is made, but a quick allusion to Egypt is still present, for Artemi- dorus remarks how it would be pointless to research the medical prescriptions that gods have given in dreams to a large number of people in several different localities, including Alexandria IV, 22, , It is fair to understand that, at least in the case of the mention of Alexandria, the allusion is again to Serapis and to the common 53 Artem.
The authors that Artemidorus mentions are Geminus of Tyre, Demetrius of Phalerum, and Artemon of Miletus, on whom see, respectively, Darius Del Corno: Graecorum de re onirocritica scriptorum reliquiae. See also p. Artemidorus of Daldis, Egypt, and the Contemporary Oneirocritic Literature in Egyptian use of practicing incubation in his sanctuaries. On in- cubation practices within sanctuaries of Serapis in Egypt, see, besides the relevant sections of the studies cited above in n.
Paris Sources Orientales. Oberhelman ed. Milano Rather, it appears dictated by the equivalence established between Serapis and Pluto, an equivalence which, as already discussed above, had not been impro- vised by Artemidorus, but was well established in the Greek reception of Serapis and of the older myth of Osiris.
Whilst the main theoretical treatment of Pluto in II, 39, , 13—20 is mostly positive, elsewhere in the Oneirocritica dreams with a Plutonian connection or content are dim in outcome: see e. Therefore, it seems fairer to conclude that the negative outcome of dreams featuring Serapis in the Oneirocritica is due not to his being an oriental god looked at with suspicion, but to his being a chthonic god and the orig- inally Egyptian counterpart of Pluto.
Ultimately, this is confirmed by the fact that Pluto himself receives virtually the same treatment as Serapis in the Oneirocritica, yet he is a perfectly traditional member of the Greek pantheon of old. In IV, 80, , 25—, 10, it is reported how a man desirous of having children was incapable of unraveling the meaning of a dream, in which he had seen himself collecting a debt and handing a receipt to his debtor.
The location of the story, as Artemidorus specifies, is Egypt, namely Alexandria, homeland of the cult of Serapis. After being unable to find a dream in- terpreter capable of explaining his dream, this man is said to have prayed to Serapis asking the god to disclose its meaning to him, clearly by means of a revelation in a dream, possibly by incubation: and Serapis did appear to him, revealing that the meaning of the dream which Artemidorus explains through a play on etymology was that he would not have children.
Artemidorus of Daldis, Egypt, and the Contemporary Oneirocritic Literature in Egyptian ly, the only two mentions of Alexandria in Artemidorus, here IV, 80, , 5 and in IV, 22, , 11 mentioned above , are both connected with revelatory and probably incubatory dreams and Serapis though the god is not openly mentioned in IV, Four short dreams concerning Serapis, all of which have a most ominous out- come i.
In V, 26, , 11—17, Artemidorus tells how a man who had dreamt of wearing a bronze plate tied around his neck with the name of Serapis written on it died from a quinsy seven days later.
In V, 92, , 1—7, it is related how a sick man prayed to Serapis begging him to appear to him and give him a sign, by waving either his right or his left hand, to let him know whether he would live or die.
He then dreamt of entering the temple of Serapis whether the famous one in Alexandria or perhaps some other outside Egypt is not specified , and that Cerberus was shaking his right paw at him. As Artemidorus explains, he died, for Cerberus symbolised death, and by shaking his paw he was welcoming him.
To this, Artemidorus gives again an explanation connected to the fact that Serapis is Pluto: by his act, the god of the dead was seizing this man and his life. Lastly, in V, 94, , 11—16, another solicited dream is related. A man who had prayed to Serapis before undergoing surgery had been told by the god in a dream that he would regain health by this operation: he died, and, as Artemidorus explains, this happened be- cause Serapis is a chthonic god.
His promise to the man was respected, for death did give him his health back, by putting a definitive end to his illness. As is clear from this overview, none of these other dreams show any specific Egyp- tian features in their content, apart from the name of Serapis, nor do their inter- pretations.
Considering that its mention comes within a section about animals that look more dangerous than they actually are, and that it follows the name of a snake and of a puffing toad, it seems fair to suppose that this is another reptile, and not the Nile fish. An Egyp- tian said that the observer of the dream had come into such a state of poverty that, due to his extreme lack of money, he set his dead father upon his back and carried him out to the grave.
For the phoenix also buries its own father. And so, I do not know whether the dream came to pass in this way, but that man indeed related it thus and, according to this version of the myth, it was fitting that it would come true. Torrance, CA 2nd edition. After this, a worm is generated from its ashes, which eventually becomes again a phoenix and flies back to the place from which it had come. Based on this other version of the myth, Artemidorus concludes, another interpretation of the dream above could also suggest that, as the phoenix does not actually have a father but is self-generat- ed from its own ashes , the dreamer too is bound to be bereft of his parents.
II, On Herodotus and the phoenix, see Lloyd: Herodotus n. It does not seem un- wise to understand that this Egyptian who reported the dream was possibly also its original interpreter, as all scholars who have commented on this passage have assumed, but it should be borne in mind that Artemidorus does not state this un- ambiguously. The core problem remains the fact that the figure of this Egyptian is introduced ex abrupto, and nothing at all is said about him. Who was he?
Was this an Egyptian who authored a dream book known to Artemidorus? Or was this some Egyptian that Artemidorus had either met in his travels, or of whom and whose sto- ry about the dream of the phoenix he had heard, either in person by a third party or from his readings? The intro- duction provides a holistic interpretation of the Oneirocitica that considers its language, organization, divinatory theory, and politics, and outlines a range of broader contexts for thinking about the text.
To Andrew Gilbert and my Undergraduate Research Fellows Alexandra Boudreaux, Christopher Canniff, and Erin Cummins, who contributed much to the project and, in particular, were of great help in editing the manuscript and writing some of the chapter summaries. To Tom Chandler and Sarah Newton for their careful copyediting, and proofreading. The conference speakers— J. Allan Hobson, William Ventimiglia, and David Konstan—taught me a great deal about the nature and meaning of our dreams.
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