Dream

Hellenic religion

• Dream is used in Divination.

  Artemidorus writes a professional handbook for interpreting dreams. Dream-reading here is a Greek technical service, not temple incubation and not Ifá.

  from Artemidorus of Daldis · Oneirocritica, 2nd century CE

  used in · sourced · documented

• Dream is used in Dream incubation.

  Incubation is a method for soliciting a dream. Artemidorus reads dreams that have already arrived; incubation tries to make one arrive in a holy place.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  used in · partially sourced · documented

• Dream appears in Hellenic religion.

  Artemidorus’s book is a Greek intellectual product about dreams as signs that can be classified.

  from Artemidorus of Daldis · Oneirocritica, 2nd century CE

  appears in · sourced · documented

• Moon is associated with Dream.

  Artemidorus classifies dreams that involve celestial lights among the images a professional interpreter might be asked to read.

  from Artemidorus of Daldis · Oneirocritica, 2nd century CE

  associated with · partially sourced · documented

• Dream is associated with Soul.

  Some books treat dreams as what a soul does while the body sleeps. Artemidorus is more a classifier of images than a metaphysician of soul; keep the pairing interpretive.

  associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

Mesopotamian tradition

• Dream appears in Mesopotamian tradition.

  Gilgamesh’s epic treats dreams as narrative foreknowledge: Gilgamesh’s meteor-and-axe dreams are read as signs of Enkidu, and Enkidu’s dream carries knowledge of the dead. That is Mesopotamian epic material, not Artemidorus’s Greek handbook.

  from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)

  appears in · sourced · documented