Dreams in Greek World

The Past and Present Society
The Future of Dreams: From Freud to Artemidorus Author(s): S. R. F. Price Source: Past & Present, No. 113 (Nov., 1986), pp. 3-37 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/650978 . Accessed: 17/02/2014 16:46
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THE FUTURE OF DREAMS: FROM FREUD TO ARTEMIDORUS*

"The interpretation ofdreamsis theroyalroadto a knowledge ofthe unconsciousactivities of the mind". In this one sentenceFreud of The Interpretation encapsulatedthe significance ofDreams,first in 1899. back at theworkthirty-one published Looking yearslater, he statedthat"it contains, even according to mypresent-day judgeit has been my good ment,the mostvaluable of all the discoveries to make. Insightsuch as thisfallsto one's lot but once in a fortune lifetime".' The judgement ofposterity has concurred. TheInterpretation the most influential of Freud's marks ofDreams,perhaps works, thetransition from theconfident of the nineteenth to energy century the anxiousintrospection of the twentieth. The place of Freud as one ofthedefining elements ofour modern looks slightly less paramount when we look back at The identity ofArtemidorus, written in thesecondcentury Interpretation ofDreams A.D. at theheight oftheRomanempire.Take, forexample,a partof the sectionon sexual dreams:
Intercourse withprostitutes at brothels indicates a little embarrassment and some thesewomenare ashamedand also spend money. expense: people who frequent But for everyundertaking these women are good: theyare knownby some as "workers"and makethemselves availablewithout restrictions. It wouldbe good to enterwhore-houses and be able to leave, as beingunable to leave is bad. I know someonewho dreamedthathe entered a whore-house and was unableto leave,and who died a fewdays afterwards, as was the logicalresultof his dream.This place is knownas a commonplace, like thatwhichreceivescorpses,and much sperm there.So it is reasonable thatthisplace shouldresemble death(i.78, p. 87 perishes
1. 3).2
Unlike Freud, Artemidorus is interested in dreamsas a keynot to theunconscious, but to thefuture. was not Dreamingof prostitutes thefantasy ofa mindfreefrom therepressive censor,butindicated, embarrassment and expenseor success in undertakings. variously,
* I am most forcreative assistance from grateful Mary Beard, David Cannadine, Lucia Nixon, JohnNorthand David Robinson. 1 S. Freud,TheInterpretation ofDreams (1900,citedfrom Penguin edn., Harmondsworth,1976), pp. 769, 56. 2 I citeArtemidorus bookand by numbers, chapter addingthepageandlinenumber from theeditionby R. A. Pack (Leipzig, 1963). My translation is based on thatbyR. J. White(Park Ridge, 1975).
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The deathof the man who dreamedof beingdetainedin a brothel was obvious not because of some deep connection betweensexual dreamsand a death-wish, but simplybecause of the logic of the imagery. betweenthe introspective This fundamental conflict theoryof has broad and Freud and the predictivetheoryof Artemidorus forhistorians and psychohistorians. The unisignificant implications have oftenled scholarsto apply the versal claims of psychology to other of Freudianor othermodernpsychological theory findings theancient worldand Artemidorus, ortoevaluate societies, including as anticipations of Freud. In the nextsectionI themteleologically and Whiggish tendencies and discusstheseethnocentric shallbriefly explain why they are deeply unhelpful.Freud has been widely is of his dreamtheory but the actual scientific influential, standing relative.Then weak and much of it is best treatedas culturally in his own can be understood like Freud himself, Artemidorus, context. cultural of dreaminterpretation, whichoccupiesthe Artemidorus' system a ofthisarticle, unFreudian secondsection psychologiemploys quite from modernones. cal model, and allowsfordreamsverydifferent This systemmust also be located withinthe broaderintellectual Artemidorus' oftheday. As we shallsee in thethird culture section, to and a practice whichareidentical on an epistemology workrested connection which thoseof one of theancientschoolsof medicine (a in histories of science);like otherexponents overlooked is normally to establish as a reliable divination he was attempting of divination I the later and final section shall sketch In the fourth discipline. on an dreams and of Artemidorus as authority predictive importance treated effected thecomplex transformations byFreud.Freudhimself as a greatpredecessor, Artemidorus thoughhis own systemwas different. profoundly I theories to othersocietieshas of our psychological The application ofrealsophistication It is surely a mark attraction. an understandable attainments ofmodern to makefulluse oftheconceptual specialists, rather thanto plod along withthe help onlyof everyday concepts. is the pursuit The most extremeformof this use of psychology the hidden depths of This seeks to investigate of psychohistory. Thus Freud and societies individuals psychoanalysis. byretrospective
DREAMS: FREUD TO ARTEMIDORUS
to psychoanalyse Leonardoda Vinci,and Erikson himself attempted Luther.These pioneerworksled to a generalcall fortheacceptance of Freudian psychoanalytic conceptsand theiruse to expand our of sexuality of the past.3 Thus PeterGay's history comprehension volumeofa monumental from"Victoriato Freud", thefirst history that ofthenineteenth-century bourgeoisie, beginswiththestatement ofthisworkowes muchto thethought of "the substantive argument Freud. So does itsoveralloutline.I haveconstructed on myvolumes - love, the fundamental buildingblocksof the humanexperience ofpsychohistory and conflict". One obviousapplication aggression, is to the dreamsof the past and some scholarshave takenup the forexample,studiedthe dreamsof the challenge.JacquesLe Goff, And of middle ages, arbitrarily adoptinga Freudian perspective.4 neednotbe limited tothestudy ofpastsocieties. coursethisapproach includesan article on one contemThePsychoanalytic Study ofSociety the poraryAmazonianIndian culture.In the course of field-work interviews on thedreams author used free-association ofthree young men and "succeeded" in cutting own defensive awaytheir symbolic ofthedreamsto reachback to childhood memories.5 interpretations have also been practised and psychoanalysis on the Psychology ancient world.The classicworkof E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the whichcontains thebestbrief accountofGreekdreams,is Irrational, based upon a (critical)acceptanceof Freudiantheory (he talks,for and about manifest latent content and about example, secondary to apply moderntheory more elaboration).Othershave attempted who in the of overtly. George Devereux, engaged ethnopsychiatry AmericanIndians, employsa strictly Freudian line on dreamsin Greektragedy. theovert ofthedreams function in theplays Ignoring which was to predictfuture he themselves, events, expoundsthe
in History",Daedalus, c 3F. E. Manuel, "The Use and Abuse of Psychology and Psychoanalysis (1971), pp. 187-213; S. Friedlander,History (New York and in M. Kammen (ed.), The Past London, 1978); P. Loewenberg,"Psychohistory", Us (Ithacaand London, 1980),pp. 408-32,reprinted in P. Loewenberg, before Decoding thePast (Berkeley,1985), pp. 14-41.For bibliographies, see F. Sinofsky etal., Hist. Childhood A Quart.,ii (1974-5), pp. 517-62;W. J. Cilmore, Psychohistorical Inquiry: (New York, 1983). Comprehensive Bibliography 4 P. Gay, The Bourgeois Experience, I.: Educationof theSenses (New York and Oxford,1984), pp. 5-6. See now his FreudforHistorians (New York and Oxford, in theMiddleAges(Chicago, 1980), pp. 1985). J. Le Goff,Time,Workand Culture 201-4. P. Burke, "L'histoiresociale des raves", AnnalesE.S.C., xxviii(1973), pp. an alternative to Freudianand Jungian 329-42,offers approaches. s W. H. Kracke, "Dreamingin Kagwahiv:Dream Beliefsand theirPsychicUses in an AmazonianIndian Culture",Psychoanalytic viii (1979), pp. StudyofSociety, 119-71.
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latentcontentof the dreams. For Devereux thereis no conflict betweenthe Greekinterpretation of the dreamsand his own, only that "the Greeks were unable to take the decisive step of regret dream like that behavein accordance with Freud, figures concluding, - i.e. repressedand denied - wishes the dreamer'sunconscious are flagrantly withhis conscious which,by definition, incompatible desires". A comparableuse of psychoanalysis has been made in withthedreamsofAeliusAristides. a contemconnection Aristides, includedin his Sacred Tales accountsof the of Artemidorus, porary tohimin dreams andoffering curesfor hisill godAsclepiusappearing ofthesedreamsarguedthatAristides health.A psychoanalytic study and exhibitionist suffered froman inferiority complex,narcissism from his anal training.6 all perhapsresulting masochism, too has been evaluatedby modernpsychologists. Artemidorus him often refer to Artemidorus, ofdreamanalysis Histories claiming into One statesthatArtemidorus' as a greatpredecessor. "insights in deducing themeaning of thatmustbe considered thecomplexities a particulardream are amazinglycompatiblewith contemporary on dreamsin Greece, writing dynamic approaches".7One Jungian, as offers "no end of soundadvice,as modern saysthatArtemidorus is that recent work even asserted can be", while another merely A Freudian studydevoted to Artemidorus.8 a series of footnotes thenumto Artemidorus is equallyfavourable, stressing specifically and Freud.9 ber of parallelsbetweenArtemidorus
6 T. W. AncientHistoryand Freud: The Descent into Africa,"Psychohistory, and theIrrational xii (1979), pp. 5-33. E. R. Dodds, TheGreeks Avernus",Arethusa, in an Age ofAnxiety (Berkeley,1951), pp. 102-34. See also his Pagan and Christian (Oxford,1976),p. Tragedy (Cambridge,1965), ch. 2. G. Devereux,Dreamsin Greek dans les "Discourssacris" d'Aelius 140. G. Michenaud and J. Dierkens,Les r&ves Iie sicle ap. J.-C.: essaid'analyse (Mons, 1972). See also J. D. Aristide, psychologique xii (1984-5),pp. Hughes, "The Dreams of Alexanderthe Great",Ji. Psychohistory, arabe d'aprisIbn Sirin 168-92;and on Arab dreams,A. Abdel Daim, L'oniromancie (Damascus, 1958), pp. 90-148. 1971), pp. 8-9. (Morristown, ofDreaming 7 R. L. Van de Castle, The Psychology 8 C. A. Meier, "The Dream in AncientGreece and its Use in Temple Cures and R. Caillois(eds.), TheDreamandHuman (Incubation)",in G. E. von Grunebaum citedin M. Kaiser, and Los Angeles,1966),pp. 303-19;J. Jacobi, Societies (Berkeley Artemidor vonDaldis, Traumbuch 1965), p. 18. (Basle and Stuttgart, Traumim Lichteder Freudschen des Artemidoros 9 W. Kurth,"Das Traumbuch notestheequationofBirth for iv (1951), pp. 488-512.Kurth, lehre",Psyche, example, intothesea thatfalling and Water,but Artemidorus (iv.53, p. 277 1. 15) sayssimply and arbitrary makesthefurther and Kurthhimself is fearsome, equationof thisfear A comparable movewas to citea seriesof dream Geburtstrauma. withthe archetypal H. J. symbolsfromcentralAfricawhichhave a certainoverlapwithArtemidorus: and Artemidoros", Man, xxvi(1926), pp. 211-12;J. S. Lincoln, Rose, "CentralAfrica Cultures The Dream in Primitive (London, 1935), pp. 127-31.
The desire to exportour culturaltheorieshas deep roots. The claimsofpsychology and psychiatry are to universal and the validity statusof a "hard" science. Like biology,but unlikehistory, they whosetruth make scientific (thatis, objective)statements appliesin oftheclaimsofpsycholto all societies. The reasonableness principle and Freud in ogy is increasedby the extentto whichpsychology, have come to define the generalconceptions of our own particular, We all "know" now thatseemingly trivial verbalerrors can identity. ofourunconscious be extremely We also "know" revealing thoughts. the murkyand unwelcome that dreams are a way of uncovering and desireswhichwe normally hide even from ourselves. thoughts the arguments The age of innocenceis past. Whatever overdetails ofindividual someoftheprincipal ofpsycholtheories, assumptions are now which itself to commonplaces, ogy helps underpinthe scientific statusand universal scope of psychology. Such acceptanceof the universalclaims of psychology and the ofitstheories on other facetwoserious societies imposition problems. First, given the truthof psychological theory,especiallydream theimposition ofthistheory on ancient Greeceis unlikely to theory, be informative It might be illuminating thebiographfor historically. ies of individuals, but it cannotmake senseof thecultural configurations specificto that society.In addition,thereis the dangerof ancientevidencein thelightofmodernpreconceptions. misreading Freud's readingof the OedipusTyrannus is a classiccase of circular Freudarguesthat theappealoftheOedipus argumentation. Tyrannus, itselfa versionof a primeval dream,is based upon the audience's to thefulfilment in theplayoftheir own childhood wishes, response buttheassumption ofsuchwishesis dependent on his psychological and unnecessary for theplay.'oSomeanthropotheory understanding of crudeFreudianism, but logicalstudiesofdreamsavoid theerrors even they assumemodern at uncritically theory. Theyexpress regret the manifest content of dreams unable to and only studying being to thelatent and they content, penetrate generally ignore indigenous theories ofdreams orexplicitly them with thesuperior western replace a This is lost for a between theory. opportunity genuine engagement 11 the theories of two cultures.
10 Doctors J.M. Barzun,Clio and the (Chicago, 1974). J.-P.Vernant (withP. Vidaland Myth in Ancient Greece(Brighton,1981), pp. 63-86. The Naquet), Tragedy article criticized in D. Anzieu (ed.), was, however, by Vernant reprinted unchanged et culture Psychanalyse (Paris, 1980), pp. 9-52. grecque 1 See, for example, R. G. D'Andrade, "The Effectof Culture on Dreams", in F. L. K. Hsu (ed.), Psychological (Homewood, 1961), pp. 308-32, Anthropology in S. G. M. Lee and A. R. Mayes (eds.), DreamsandDreaming reprinted (Harmonds-
(cont.onp. 8)
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worth, 1973), pp. 198-218; D. Eggan, "Hopi Dreams in CulturalPerspective", in von Grunebaumand Caillois (eds.), Dream and Human Societies, pp. 237-65; R. A. LeVine, Dreamsand Deeds: Achievement Motivation inNigeria(Chicago,1966). inPsychological AnthroFor an introduction see P. K. Bock, Continuities and critique, Sex and theearliersubtlety ofB. Malinowski, (San Francisco,1980). Contrast pology in human in Savage Society (London, 1927), who arguedformodification Repression natureby family his viewsare, of course,controversial. structures; in Freud's Interpretation 12 C. E. Schorske,"Politics and Patricide of Dreams", Vienna in his Fin-de-Siecle Amer.Hist. Rev., lxxviii(1973), pp. 328-47, reprinted he himself a psychoanalytic approach. (London, 1979),pp. 181-207,though employs see L. Stone,ThePast and For criticism oftheahistorical approachofpsychohistory, thePresent (Boston and London, 1981), pp. 25-6, 40-1. Freudand Man's Soul (London, 1983). 13 B. Bettelheim, The 14 For a measuredcritiqueof Freud, see S. Fisher and R. P. Greenberg, and Therapy (Hassocks and New York, 1977), Scientific Credibility ofFreud'sTheories ch. 2; also C. Rycroft, TheInnocence ofDreams(London, 1979). H. Ey, "Le probleme in H. Ey (ed.), L'inconscient et la psychopathologie", de l'inconscient (Paris, 1966), and London, 1978). (Bloomington pp. 257-89; H. Ey, Consciousness
(n. 11 cont.)
Secondly,thereis the problemof the statusof Freudiantheory. The peculiarly nature ofFreud's theory of dreams asocial,apolitical is explicablein termsboth of Freud's own biography and of the of his day.12 Such historicizing of Freud generalpoliticalcontext suggests, thoughof courseit does not prove,thathis theories may be culturally rather specific. Freudian dream theory has in factreceivedradicaland perhaps An initialproblemis one of translation. fatal criticisms. English translations of Freud have been largely fortheinfluence responsible of Freud in theEnglish-speaking world,butthey (eventheStandard introduced terminolEdition)havesystematically (pseudo-)scientific terms. For example,Freud's ogyin place ofFreud's ownhumanistic "Das Ich und das Es" shouldbe translated notas "The Ego and the refers to theancient Id", but as "I and It", whileDie Traumdeutung searchforthe meaningof dreams,just as "Sterndeutung" refers to In addition,theoretical have been levelled thatof stars.13 criticisms notonlyby Jung(and others), who rejected thedistinction between but manifest and latent also the French Henri content, by psychiatrist who has that the the need unconscious conscious and Ey, longargued to be seen as two complementary modes of being,rather thanthe thenegation unconsciousbeingsimply of consciousor autonomous in relation to it. The implication of thisview is thatdreamsare no of a destructuring longera royalroad to the real person,but rather theconsciousness, in a processwhichis carried outmoreextensively or manic-depressive havealso delirium states.14Empirical criticisms been levelledat Freud. Freud's theory ofdreaming developedoutof his workon neurology, and themodelof themindwhichit presup-
poses relies upon his neurologicalviews. However, more recent theFreudianmodel, claimsto have refuted intoneurology research fordreamtheory: dreamsare generated and has majorimplications continued of the day's residuesand energy not by the combination neural neutral unconscious ina repressed, wish,butbymotivationally as thepsychic theunconscious Thereis no need to postulate activity. wishesand also no needtosee theprimary ofrepressed system storage the repressedwish.is Freudian process in dreamingas disguising and its imposition on at best is thus extremely problematic theory futile.16 culturesingularly another to searchfora fresh It is therefore timely perspective particularly on dreams. One way to escape the conceptualgrip of Freud is to of dreams. examine the major nineteenth-century investigators extensive and Hildebrandt undertook de Saint-Denys Maury,Hervey as a wayofunderstanding ofdreams studies and theoretical empirical and physiological. Freud of theirinner selves, both psychological course knew these works (thoughHerveyde Saint-Denys only at secondhand) and citedthemin TheInterpretation ofDreams,but he within his own framework. subsumedtheircontributions naturally of approachingthe Scholars have now begun to see the interest on their writers of these models nineteenth-century psychological to removeArtemiIt may proveequallyilluminating own terms.17 and to elucidate theworkings his place in Freud's system dorusfrom of dreaminterpretation. of his non-Freudian system II was born in Ephesus, one of the main cities of the Artemidorus
15 P. Amacher,Freud's Neurological Educationand itsInfluence on Psychoanalytic (New York, 1965). For modernresearch,see R. W. McCarleyand J. A. Theory cxxxiv(1977), pp. 1211-21,1335-48.F. Crickand G. Hobson, Amer. Jl. Psychiatry, aboutdreamson Mitchison, Nature,ccciv (1983), pp. 111-14,base a new hypothesis thiswork. See now L. Hudson, NightLife (London, 1985); D. Foulkes,Dreaming: A Cognitive-Psychological (Hillsdale and London, 1985). Analysis 16 The problematic oftheir chosenpsychological nature theories weakensthevalue of two workson classical Greece. P. E. Slater, The Gloryof Hera (Boston, 1968) are fundamental, butthisis highly assumesthatchild-rearing D. practices disputable: On Freudand theFailureofPsychohistory E. Stannard, History: (New York Shrinking and Oxford,1980),pp. 100-6.B. Simon,MindandMadnessinAncient Greece (Ithaca, stance,as G. E. Berrios adoptsa veryidiosyncratic 1978), a practising psychoanalyst, me. informs etlesr~ves 17L. F. A. Maury,Le sommeil (Paris, 1861); Marquisd'Herveyde Saintdelesdiriger etlesmayens (Paris,1867;repr.1964); F. W. Hildebrandt, Denys,Les r&ves Der TraumundseineVerwerthung fiir'sLeben(Leipzig, 1875). G. E. Berrios,unpubsee moregenerally, G. E. Berrios, lishedmanuscript; "Descriptive Psychopathology: xiv (1984), pp. 303-13. Medicine, Conceptualand HistoricalAspects",Psychological e'tudes P. Pachet,Nuitse'troitement surveillkes: (Paris, 1980). See also H. psychologiques F. Ellenberger, The Discovery of theUnconscious (London, 1970), pp. 303-11.
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is nowwestern he later ofAsia,in what Romanprovince Turkey; ofrespect towards that obscure thename"ofDaldis"as a mark took to thenorth-east ofEphesus, kilometres town in Lydia,a hundred chief hismother andwhose where originated deity, Apollo, instigated on dreams ofhiswork thecomposition (ii.70,p. 2031. 3; iii.66,p. urbanized areaofwestern 2351. 13).Theprosperous, highly Turkey, was Greek, forms theprimary worldof culture whosedominant numerous other works He hadwritten Artemidorus. (iii.66,p. 235 he composed hiswork on dreams, 1. 15)which arenowlost,before 18Itisdivided into five A.D. "books". second inthe mid tolate century who isprobably tooneCassius arededicated three Thefirst Maximus, i and rhetorical works areextant. Books whose ofTyre theMaximus with dreams iiareorganized bysubject-matter, starting systematically andthe with thebody, ofbeing born, public occupations continuing iii is a i. Book death of to dreams (cf. 10). consisting supplement, gods, that earlier and explaining matters omitted of points inadvertently 234 1. Book be cleartotheprofessional wouldalready (iii.66,p. 4). to his sonArtemidorus and addressed iv is a further supplement, there for a own use as dream for his interpreter; is, example, designed in disputes with howtoappear about advice particularly impressive 1. 253 1. 237 other dream 17; iv.20, 12; (iv praef., p. p. interpreters of dreams book consists The final 1. 259 ninety-five iv.23,p. 2). notonly Eachbookincludes to havecometrue. wereknown which theoretical but also extensive dreams ofwhat details mean, particular on dream reflections interpretation. of liesin their for Artemidorus ofdreams The interest prediction a He draws had thissignificance. Not thatall dreams thefuture. ofdreams: twotypes between distinction fundamental one,the only nointerest the holds the while other, forward, enhypnia, oneiroi, points ofaffairs ofa present state areindicative because (i.1). merely they since those dreams andpetitionary dreams include anxiety Enhypnia to thedreamer's (i.6). Theyalso include thoughts justcorrespond been which hadalready ofapparitions thesubcategory (phantasmata) writers at length discussed (i.2, p. 6 1. 13). In thepreface byearlier distinction between thetwo to thetechnical to Bookiv he reverts no and has that "A ofdreams: dream nothing, meaning predicts types from an hasarisen onesleeps andthat while is active onethat only
of Hadrianin A.D. 138 in memory The termini postquos are the gamesfounded 18s (i.26, p. 33 1. 11) and thegoutof Fronto,bornc. A.D. 95 (iv.22, p. 257 1. 13), and a in Galen: Corpusmedicorum to Artemidorus ante quema reference rough terminus v.9.1, p. 129, whichdates to A.D. 176-9. Graecorum,
11
or from a surfeit orlackof andextraordinary irrational fear, desire, and 238 1. These dreams of desires anenhypnion" food iscalled 20). (p. Artemidorus: to are dismissed of such interest which are us, fears, by
life do nothaveenhypnia oranyother moral irrational wholivean upright, People aredirectly andgenerally onesthat Fortheir butrather oneiroi fantasies, predictive. or byexpectations, butindeed control the minds arenotmuddled they byfears andother irrational fantasies donot In short, desires bodies. oftheir enhypnia appear toa serious (iv praef., p. 2391. 14). person (spoudaios)
wasuntouched thesoulofthe Theideathat goodman bythe passions Itdoesnot sources. from Stoic suit wasderived philosophical entirely dream whohardly ofa professional wanted thepractice interpreter, man the rare whocould seeonly from but business oneiroi, good solely ofenhypnia. Artemidorus' Theproducts of itdoesemphasize rejection ofthepassions as creations theday'sresidues aretrivial: relate they than thefuture. to thepresent rather ofdreams andsignificant were The second dreams type predictive visions andoracular Theseincluded butArtemidreams, (oneiroi). these twosubcategories decided nottodiscuss onthegrounds dorus obvious orimpenetrable that were either (i.2,p. 6 1. 17;cf.iv.2, they himself from twocommon practices, p. 2461. 5). Thushe distances ofthegodsandtheenquiries in sanctuaries dream incubation putto oracles steal thecloth?"). Unlike Aelius ("Did Dorkilos godsattheir was thusnotprimarily concerned with the Artemidorus Aristides, ofthegodsin human existence. Instead he focuses manifestation on of predictive between twotypes dreams a distinction that oneiroi: and thosethatpredict the future (theorematikoi) directly predict (allegorikoi) (i.2, p. 41. 22; iv.l1, p. 2411. 1). Theorematikoi allusively For example, someone come trueimmediately. "dreamt thathe a friend. somemoney from In themorning he received received ten which he looked after for safe minas 5 1. When (i.2, p. keeping" 7). admit ofnodelay, the the events soulemploys theorematikoi predicted thatthere is no failure of communication. to ensure By contrast, come true after a or shorter allegorikoi only longer lapseof time. dreams which arephysically Obviously impossible (suchas dreams offlying) can fallonly intothelatter ofother class,and thefailure a deposit) tocometrue meant oneiroi (suchas receiving immediately that Discussion oftheallegorikoi oneiroi interpretation. they required thebulkofthebook. forms The existence ofpredictive dreams wasgenerally in the accepted ancient world. The particular that Artemidorus refers typology to, withitsvarious ofenhypnia and oneiroi, was nothis subcategories
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whichmay explainwhyit is not fully own invention, incorporated is also foundin Macrobius,a The typology intohis own thinking. of theearlyfifth Latinwriter A.D.,who does notseemto be century been A source has therefore common on Artemidorus. dependent the be identified. source cannot this but By contrast, postulated, and theorematikoi, to whichArtemibetweenallegorikoi distinction is not found elsewhere(with the dorus devotes much attention, on him) and writers of two dependent possibly Byzantine exception were numerous other Greek There invention.19 own his well be may and medicalwriters, ofdreamsby poets,philosophers classifications of but almostall of thesein variousways allowedforthe existence of dreams other to in addition dreams, arising types specialpredictive othersources.A fewwriters, from however, bodilydesiresor from dreamsor indeedofanyform ofpredictive had deniedtheexistence and it was to or of divine providence, of the future of divination was writing counterthemthatArtemidorus (i praef.,p. 1 1. 1; cf. i.2, p. 5 1.16; iv praef.,p. 237 1. 25). The scepticswere perhaps ofArtemidorus' climate butthegeneral day Epicureanphilosophers, whichwas Stoicphilosophy, to suchsubversive was hostile thoughts. of thesecondcentury in theculture a majorelement A.D.,defended met the need to almost all types of divinationand Artemidorus that(some) dreams thecommonassumption and consolidate justify the future.20 predicted direct and interpreting Giventheease ofdistinguishing (theorematiwas devotedto producing main effort koi) dreams, Artemidorus' dreams.His crucial for allegorical understanding plausibleprinciples than other ofdreamsis nothing is that"the interpretation argument similarities The 1. 145 ofsimilarities" thejuxtaposition 11).21 (ii.25, p. and theactualoutcomes dreamimagery lie between bythe predicted
19 C. (Diss. Uppsala, 1936), Blum, "Studies in the Dream-Bookof Artemidorus" argued for Posidonius, but see A. H. M. Kessels, "Ancient Systemsof Dreamxxii (1969), pp. 389-424. See, in general,C. A. Behr, Classification", Mnemosyne, and theSacred Tales (Amsterdam, AeliusAristides 1968), pp. 171-204. 20 For a Anatolian Epicureanattackon dreams,see M. F. Smith, contemporary in theearlyfifth century Studies,xxxiv(1984), pp. 45-9. Synesius,a bishopwriting was but thatno scienceof interpretation A.D., argued thatdreamswere predictive, (On Dreams,11-12). possibleas all people were different inSleep,2 (part On Divination 21 The sameassumption had beenmadebyAristotle, treatise B.c. Hippocratic oftheParva Naturalia,464b5-15),and bythefourth-century in dreamssignifies is, health. On Regimen, good,that iv, whicharguesthatthenormal a common and Artemidorus treatise suggest The verbalparallelsbetweenthe latter (Berlin, 1899), pp. 206-17. See source: C. Fredrich, Untersuchungen Hippokratische medicorum commentary Graecorum, also RufusofEphesus:Corpus Supp. iv,p. 34, with on pp. 74-7.
13
a richman because of dreams.For example,"the oak treesignifies itsnutritional or timeitself value,an old manbecauseofitslongevity forthe same reason" (ii.25, p. 144 1. 1). This principle of similarity of whether is extendedto make possiblea judgement a dreamwas favourable."It is a basic principlethat all imagerywhich is in namesor timeis accordancewithnature,law, custom,occupation, is contrary to themis bad and inauspicious" good, but thatwhatever connects (iv.2, p. 245 1. 2; cf. i.3, p. 11 1. 7). A web of metaphor and therealworld.The interpretation dreamimagery ofdreams was based on normative assumptions widespreadin Artemidorus' day, and dreamsthus belongednot to a baffling universebut to private the public sphere. were necessary Other practicalconsiderations to make the basic In orderto avoid seriouserrors, principleseffective. only dreams whichwere remembered fullyshould be interpreted (i.12, p. 20 1. on the partof 18; iv.3, p. 247 1. 12). And considerable knowledge thedreaminterpreter was essential ifdreamswereto be seenagainst thebackground oflocal customs. Artemidorus warnshisson that just earlier books be dream would reading inadequate. More general roundthe Greekworldwas essential. readingand actual travelling For example, "a (married)woman dreamtthatshe wentinto the of Artemis at Ephesus to eat there.She templeor innersanctuary died not long afterwards. For death is the penaltyfora (married) womanwho enters there"(iv.4, p. 247 1.21; cf.i.8). The interpreter had to be aware of customsthatwere peculiarto particular places. The emphasis,to which we shall return, was placed on personal observation rather thanjust on book-learning. In addition,the interpreter has to know all about the dreamer, who he is, whathe does, his birth, stateofhealthand age property, (i.9, p. 18 1. 16; cf. iv.21, p. 255 1. 6; v praef.,p. 302 1. 2). The dreamer'sstateof mind (he tespsuches mustalso be taken diathesis) intoconsideration; ifthedreamer is unhappy thegood things in the dreamwill notturnout so well and similarly forthebad things ifhe is happy(i. 12, p. 21 1. 5). Finally,the habits(ethe)of the dreamer must be known, eitherfromthe dreamerhimselfor fromother theimportance ofthisfrom hisown people. Artemidorus emphasizes experience:
A man dreamt thathe was practising on his ownwife, and another man cunnilingus dreamt thathis wifepractised fellatio withhim. And evenafter a longtimenoneof thethings whichare signified by thistypeofdreamand whichnormally happento otherpeople actually of them.Since thereasonforthiswas not happenedto either and it seemed to me to be incomprehensible thatnothing obvious, I was baffled,
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happenedto them.But some timelaterI learnedthatbothmenhad thecustomof actuallydoing thisand of havingimpuremouths.And so it was reasonablethat arousedtheir nothing happenedto them:theywere simplyseeingwhatnormally passions(iv.59, p. 283 1. 8).
A dream which mightinterest us is dismissedby Artemidorus. It reflected the events and held no (an enhypnion) day's predictive merely ofdreams wasofnecessity The categorization value(oneiros). problemwas awarethatthecorrect aticand Artemidorus interpretation might be obviousonlyin retrospect (iv.24, p. 259 1. 13). call for knowledgeabout the dreamerraises the Artemidorus' The interest of Artemidorus' of theories of personality. problem an oblique routeto commonGreek dream theory is thatit offers and thishas muchto commend about the personality, assumptions it over other,morebluntapproaches.Some, such as Adkins,have but in thewritings of philosophers, examinedkeywords,especially the best to of is not guide general patterns theory philosophical thought.An oblique approach also has advantagesover the once ofexperimental standard objective psychology. Allegedly procedures butdissatisfaction tests wereused withgreat scientific sophistication, As twophilosinvolved. becauseofthetheoretical increased problems "cannotbe adequately investigated ophersdeclared,thepersonality experimental by any simplisticapplicationof the old-fashioned method. . . The fieldof personality studyis now verylargelyin the back through personality disarray".The meritof approaching door was emphasized by a collectivevolume which deliberately to investiand choseinstead ofthepersonality excludedphilosophies socialand economic facts, actions, legal through gatethepersonality showed for and art.Vernant, institutions, example, language religion, thattheGreekgods werepowers,notpeople,and thatthisemphasis a general characteristic ofGreek reflected thanagents on actionrather another Dream offers from our whichdiffers own.22 theory thought an to route psychology.23 understanding indigenous oblique seemto relyon familiar Artemidorus' At first practice might sight A Jungian, forexample,allegesthat of thepersonality. assumptions
22 A. W. H. One (London, 1970). J.-P.de Waele and Fromthe Adkins, Manytothe of Individuals",in R. Harre(ed.), Personality R. Harre, "The Personality (Oxford, the Greeks and Thought (London, 1983), among Myth 1976),pp. 189-90.J.-P.Vernant, pp. 323-40. 23 For anthropological aproaches,see P. Heelas and A. Lock (eds.), Indigenous The Anthropology of the Self (London, 1981); R. A. Shweder and Psychologies: R. A. LeVine (eds.), Culture (Cambridge, Theory: Essayson Mind,Selfand Emotion of D. Eggan, "Dream Analysis",in B. 1984). Contrastthe Freudianassumptions (Evanston,1961), pp. 551-77. Personality Cross-Culturally Kaplan (ed.), Studying
15
include: "you mustknow the dreamer's Artemidorus' injunctions of the character"and "must adapt yourverdictto the personality the But cited in of the latter dreamer before passage support you".24 the of nor does kind, injunction(iii.66) says nothing any other of of a modern idea character and The personalpassage. importation As we have seen,Artemidorus mistake. simply ityis a revealing says needsto knowthedreamer's in thattheinterpreter identity, position facts These different about the dreamer habits and mood. remain life, in a modernconception of the personality. isolatedand not unified Artemidorus used thedreamer's In particular in society standing as a crucial variable. Dreams meantdifferent thingsto people in different stations or in different For example: professions.
ifa man or womandreamsthatthey are made ofsilveror gold, they will be sold if are converted intosilveror gold; ifthey are poor,they theyare slaves,so thatthey will become rich,so thata substanceof thatsortwill surround them;but a rich since everything made of silverand gold personwill be the victimof scheming, invitesmanyscheming people (i.50, p. 56 1. 18).
Indeed dreamsofpublicimport could notbe had by private citizens, but only by kings, magistrates and nobles. "For these men have and can receivea visionabout them, reflected about public affairs notas private citizens towhomonlysmallthings havebeenentrusted, but as mastersand people concernedwith certainaffairs for the commongood" (i.2, p. 9 1. 20). Thus, unliketheFreudiansex-based model of the personality, Artemidorus presupposesthatthe social role of thedreamer was basic. He does allow forspecifically female dreams(forexample,on childbirth) and male ones (on public life), but thedistinction betweenthe sexes is muchless important thana of other facts about the individual. range The crucial emphasis on the dreamer'spublic statuswas not For example,a treatise on divination from peculiarto Artemidorus. the shakingof different of the a version of which was parts body, known toArtemidorus 215 1. the same (iii.28,p. 22), employs system: "If themiddlepartof theloin quiver,it meansthata notableprofit will be receivedfrom his kindred a slaveor by thisperson,whether free.If the groinquiver, a personso affected will make a graceful itdenotes appearance;to one unmarried marriage".25 Differentiation by statusis also foundin the dream book of Achmet(probablya Christian of theninth or tenth butit has disappeared from century),
Meier, "Dream in AncientGreece", pp. 312-13. PapyrusRylands, i.28, 11. 23-30. There are various manuscript versionsof derkon. preuss.Akad. derWiss., phil.-hist. Melampus(ed. H. Diels, Abhandlungen Kl. 1907 iv, withaddenda in 1908 iv).
24 25
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moderndreambooks.26The personality is now defined in isolation fromsocial rolesand our dreamspertain to us as individuals. The non-modern natureof Artemidorus' model is psychological further revealedby his accountof the originof predictive dreams. Such dreamswhichforetell good or bad are knownas "god-sent" but Artemidorus because theyare unforeseen, makesclear thathe does notwishto prejudgetheissue,whichhad been investigated by as to "whetherthe cause of our dreaming comes to us Aristotle, fromthe gods or whether thereis some internal cause externally whichdisposesthe soul in a certain event way and causes a natural to happento it" (i.6, p. 16 1. 1; cf. iv.3, p. 247 1. 10). Artemidorus is clearthatthegods can send dreamsin response to an appropriate for a disease, but these are prayer,perhaps givingthe treatment dreams(enhypnia, iv.2, p. 246 1. 5; iv.22, p. 255 1. 9), petitionary and Artemidorus is quite undecidedabout the originof prophetic dreams. He notesthatdreamsof a literary natureare seen onlyby the educated. "From this anyonecan clearlyperceivethatdreams are creations ofthesoul and arenotcaused byanyoutside influence" 284 1. In dreams occur the because addition, 3). (iv.59, p. repeated so soul wantsto saysomething and itself (iii.22,p. important repeats 213 1. 10; iv.27, p. 261 1. 18). But Artemidorus also believesthatthe in dreams appearances gods are in somewayinvolvedand thattheir 1. 286 ii. are absolutely authoritative 13; 69, p. 195 1. 3; (iv.63, p. 292 1. iv.71, p. 4). ofthedilemma is to see thegod working The logicalreconciliation seem and to adoptthissolution. the soul Artemidorus might through to the dreamer'ssoul, whichis by its very "For the god presents natureprophetic, dreamswhichcorrespond to future events". But an alternative of ends by suggesting to a divineorigin thissentence else it is thatcauses a personto dream"(iv.2, dreams:"or whatever p. 246 1. 29). Thus he also notesthat"thewayin whichtheprophecy willbe givena personmustleaveup to thegod himself or to his own is therefore too soul" (iv.2, p. 247 1. 9). Double determination to Artemidorus. neat a solutionto attribute Rather,thereis deep is indicaanswer and thisuncertainty aboutthe"correct" uncertainty
26 It A. L. Oppenheim, "The Interpretadreamtexts: is also absentfrom Assyrian Near East", Trans.Amer.Philos.Soc., xlvi(1956), p. tionof Dreams in theAncient A. Volten, dreambookscontemporary with Artemidorus: demotic 240; from Egyptian theconnection between Demotische Traumdeutung (Copenhagen,1942),whooverstates his textsand Artemidorus; and from ones: A. Delatte,"La methode post-Byzantine a' OctaveNavarre(Toulouse, in Melanges de Blaise l'Athenien", offerts oniromantique 1935), pp. 115-22.
17
of the personality. tiveof his conception dreamshave an Prophetic the soul, but also somehow ambiguousorigin,in partarisingfrom and obscurely outside.They do not impinging upon the soul from the innerdepthsof the individual. springfrom Artemidorus' abouttheorigin ofdreams was notpeculiar problem other solutions wereoffered. to him,though towhoseessay Aristotle, On Divinationin Sleep Artemidorus to steera referred, attempted middlepathbetween and complete of rejection complete acceptance dreams,but decided thattheycould not come from prophetic gods because theywere not sentonlyto the best and wisestindividuals. His solutionwas thatdreamshave a divineaspect as nature,their notitself on cause, is divinely divine,and impinged planned,though the sleeperthrough emanations.27 Here too the modelof dreaming is not a purely internalone. The sleeper was open to external and was thus able to receiveindications emanations of the future. an of influential doctor the third Herophilus, B.C., whose century were citedwithrespect theories of by contemporaries Artemidorus, a moreradicalsolution:somedreamsweresentby thegods, offered others arosefrom natural arosefrom causes,whileothers emanations, as whenpeoplesee their belovedin dreams.28This typology, positing threedifferent originsfordreams,did not win generalacceptance. The originof dreams remaineda puzzle, and concomitantly the ofthepersonality boundaries remained weakerthanin ourindividualisticage. In addition, theinterpretation ofdreamsby Artemidorus does not aim to offer of the personality of thedreamer. Howunderstanding ever, the Freudian Kurth discoveredtwo typesof interpretation which "show clear psychological insight".29 First,playson words. But themajority of theseare simple"etymologies". To dreamofan ass (onos)predicts profit (onasthai) (ii. 12, p. 120 1. 26), or "all types of pulse mean bad luck, except forpeas (pison),because of their name; theyare a sign of persuasion(peithos)" (i.68, p. 74 1. 18). These word-plays werea commonplace in theancient worldand are
27 followed toNicephorus Numerousother paganphilosophers Aristotle, according on Synesius, On Dreams(Patrologiae cursuscompletus, Series Gregoras, commentary Aristotelian on Graeca,ed. J.-P.Migne,cxlix,Paris,1865),p. 557. For other writings "Aristotle's versus Aristotle's On Philosophy", dreams,see A. H. Chroust, Protrepticus ThetaPi, iii (1974), pp. 168-78. 28 H. Diels, Doxographi see Graeci(Berlin,1879),pp. 416, 640. For other theories, and theIrrational, Dodds, Greeks pp. 119-21. 29 Kurth, "Traumbuchdes Artemidoros". Contrast theargument ofS. Timpanaro, The FreudianSlip (London, 1976).
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of the dream interpreter. The second group of not a prerogative dreamsforwhichKurthclaimspsychological insight depend upon allegedsecretdesires.Artemidorus saysthatforwomento dreamof a redmullet is good as itspawnsthree times a year(ii. 14, (tris) (triglh) scientific wisdom p. 129 1. 15), but thiswas a piece of conventional forwhichArtemidorus treatise on animals actuallycitesAristotle's on it. It is wholly and a learnedcommentary to suggest that arbitrary of the Freudiansymbolism has an intimation of three Artemidorus as representing the male genitals.Artemidorus did not interpret intothedreamers.30 dreamsin orderto gain psychological insight modelofthepersonality does notoffer a fullanalysis Artemidorus' of thedreamer.His interest structures lies in predicof theinternal and his accountofthegenesis ofpredictive tion,notin introspection, between inner avoids and outer causes. dreamsdeliberately deciding are similar. In Homer views of the Earlier Greek personality strikingly external and both internal without theheroesareincited passions, by on external Lateremphasis passionsis less individuality. losingtheir to be a mode of but because of continues marked, possible thought the associationof the passions with the gods, external powersof this within Artemidorus belongs comfortably lastingimportance. our own of the self assume views tradition. Greek By contrast, long and a greater factors ofinternal theprimacy degreeofcontrol by the of dreams, theories self.One aspectof thisis thatmodernscientific fromthe nineteenth-century pioneersto Freud and beyond, are in the not interested consequencesof dreamsbut in their primarily to thispointin SectionIV. we shall return and causation; genesis
in Artemidorus hasimportfound ofdreaminterpretation The system ofdreams. The differences contents for thereported antconsequences dreamsmaybe illustrated mostsharply and modern ancient between ofincestuous ofthegodsand dreams ofdreams:dreams bytwotypes culturecastofmindallowfor Those ofa Freudian sexualintercourse. transmitted dreams,thatis dreamswhichdependon socially pattern and content aloneis affected themanifest that whileassuming beliefs, be content of the latent thata Freudiananalysis might possible.31
30 Aelius Aristides'recordof his own dreamsis not to be seen as a Similarly, 2 in Antiquity, G. Misch, A History ofAutobiography autobiography: psychological vols. (London, 1950), ii, pp. 495-510. 31 ch. 4. and theIrrational, Dodds, Greeks
19
formodern dreamspose radicaldifficulties In factculture-pattern orthodoxy. devotesa long section First, dreams of the gods. Artemidorus of the to the gods in appearanceofparticular interpretation (ii.33-9) dreams.Zeus headed thediscussionof thegods, who wereordered classification: in an elaboratecross-cutting
hisproper himor seeinghisstatue as we haveimagined wearing SeeingZeus himself theone's good fortune is auspiciousfora kingor a richman. For it stabilizes attire fora sickpersonand it is also good for and theother'swealth.It foretells recovery stillor seated upon his otherpeople. It is always betterto see the god standing and notmoving throne (ii.35, p. 159 1. 1; cf.iv.72 p. 293 1. 3; iv.76, p. 2941. 28).32
The simpleappearanceof thegods was mostly messageenough,but withthe god. dreamsconcernedan actual relationship sometimes ball withZeus (iv.69, p. 291 1. 7), dreamof playing Someonemight a god, "whichcould notpossibly ofbecoming happento theperson 1. 13), or even of 241 cf. 1. 209 whenawake" (iii.13, p. 12; iv.l1,p. 323 97 1. a 14; v.87, p. 1.10). havingsex with god (i.80, p. The gods were a major forcein the ancientworld. Artemidorus whichthedreaminterpreter customs oftheuniversal listedas thefirst thegods. "For and honouring ofvenerating thepractice mustfollow there is none without as thereis no nationwithout kings. gods, just the but different honour Different worshipof all is gods, people directed towardsthe same power" (i.8, p. 17 1. 5). The appearance and unof the gods in dreamswas therefore extremely significant their knowngods or goddesseshad to be correctly identified, by age, to age, a or activities attribute (ii.44, p. 178 1. 11). Thus, according small boy indicatesHermes,a youngman Heracles, a grownman divided ofdeities Zeus, an old manCronus,and so on. Dreamvisions The former and allegorical. ofdirect twocategories intoArtemidorus' is foundin numerouscontexts, type,a directdivine admonition, of cures for of cults to the prescription fromthe establishment diseases.33Divine remedies,Artemidorus warns,are quite simple ointments namesfor thegodsuse thenormal and notat all enigmatic; and such riddlesas theyuse are transparent (iv.22, p. 255 1. 9). withcases whereinterpretation concerned is therefore Artemidorus
32 The of cult equivalenceof deityand statueis good evidencefortheimportance world:R. L. Gordon,"The oftheancient statues as partoftheconceptual repertoire and Religionin theGraeco-Roman Production Real and theImaginary: World",Art Hist., ii (1979), pp. 5-34. "Daikrates' Dream: A Votive RelieffromKos, and Some 33 F. T. van Straten, li (1976), pp. 1-38. antieke OtherKat'onar Dedications",Bulletin Beschaving,
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ofdivinedreamsis necessary and thegods form partofhis standard allegoricalsystem. The prestigious positionof the gods and theirunquestionable to account of the originof authority help explain Artemidorus' dreams.As we have seen, Artemidorus terms all predictive dreams and is certain that the are in some "god-sent" gods way involved, betweenthe thoughhe leaves open the questionof therelationship gods and the dreamer'sown soul. The appearanceof the gods in dreamsthusrelatesto a theory about the nature of dreaming and is also a productof generalcultural values. The twocame together in Artemidorus' view that "the gods are first those who are among ofcredenceand whosewordsone mustbelieveand obey;for worthy to the natureof a god" (ii.69, p. 195 1. 3). People lyingis contrary have sometimes been misledby the gods through failure to realize thattheysometimes and sometimes in riddles."And speak directly it is reasonable forthegods to speakmainly in riddles, sincethey are wiser than we and do not wish us to accept anything withouta examination" thorough (iv.71, p. 292 1. 14). Dreams ofthissortare outsideourexperience. The importance ofthegodsas figures largely ofauthority in dreams is theproduct ofcomplex cultural expectations and itis arbitrary modern toassumethat theorizing onlythemanifest content is at stake.Dreamsofthegodscan be interpreted onlywithin a Greekcultural context. Secondly,the sexual dreams,whichare even moreof a problem for modern theory.The frankand extendeddiscussionof these dreams(i.78-80) was omitted Krauss in by the Viennesetranslator 1881, to Freud's annoyance;34 a versionappearedonlyin 1912 in a periodicaledited by Krauss whichwas devoted Anthropophyteia, to sexual The vagariesof the German specifically anthropology. translation the ofArtemidorus' treatment neatly pointup explicitness of sexual dreams. They rangefromintercourse withone's wifeor one's childrento fellatio withfriends and intercourse withdeities. One long sectionis devotedto intercourse withone's mother (i.79), whichhas metobjections notonlyoftastebutalso oftheory. Accordovertand successful incestuous dreams ing to Freudianprinciples, ought not to exist; such sexual desiresare so shockingthatthey shouldneverpass thedreamcensor.Thus Devereuxdiscounts Artemidorusas a viable source forthe studyof Greekdreamson the dreamsof groundsthathis dreamsare psychologically implausible;
34Freud, Interpretation ofDreams,p. 767.
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field-work fulfilled incest,he claims,on thebasis ofanthropological never occur, even among the and clinical experience,practically In factincestuous dreamshave been recorded acutelypsychotic.35 and Kurthdid offer a Freudian bothin Melanesiaand in America,36 the oftheuncloakedOedipal dreamsin Artemidorus: interpretation thanwe are, had no gap between latent Greeks, beingmorechildlike wereclosertothesources thatis, they ofdream and manifest content; than"the contorted people of our day". The boundsof symbolism are obviously ofrepression thepermissible and theextent important, between thedreamand the butKurthfailsto accountfortheconflict whichArtemidorus is himself evidence Greekincest taboo,for strong 315 1. The 307 1. Greeks were not innocent 21). (v.24, p. 1; v.63, p. children.37 The ancient dreamsis interpretation placedupon theseincestuous in of dreams incest with crucial.As Freudhimself observed, antiquity mother were Artemidorus one's generally interpreted symbolically.38 notesthat:
is bothcomplexand manifold ofmany thecase ofone's mother and admits different - a thing whichnotall dreaminterpreters have realized.The fact interpretations is thatthemereactofintercourse is notenoughto showwhatis portended. by itself and thevariouspositions ofthebodiesindicate themanner oftheembraces Rather, different outcomes(i.79, p. 91 1. 3).
A complex account of the predictivesignificance of the various with one's living possibilitiesfollows. For example, intercourse motheris "lucky for everydemagogueand public figure.For a mother one's nativecountry and, justas a manwho follows signifies the preceptsof Aphrodite when he makeslove completely governs the body of his obedientand willingpartner, so the dreamerwill control all theaffairs of the city"(i.79 p. 91 1. 21). likeother ancient saw incestuous dreamsas Artemidorus, writers, a perfectly normaltype of dream whichwas interpretable by the standardanalogical method. Dodds suggestedthatthe innocuous
Devereux,Dreamsin GreekTragedy, pp. xxii,xxvi. R. Firth,"The Meaningof Dreams in Tikopia", in E. E. Evans-Pritchard etal. toC. G. Seligman in R. (eds.), EssaysPresented (London, 1934), pp. 63-74,reprinted Firth,TikopiaRitualand Belief(London, 1967), pp. 162-73;C. S. Hall, TheMeaning ofDreams(New York, 1953), ch. 6. It is similarly to compare unsatisfactory 37 Kurth,"Traumbuchdes Artemidoros". the frequent sexual dreamsof the Zulu withthe dreamsof children, as S. G. Lee, "Social Influences in Zulu Dreaming", xlvii(1958), pp. 265-83, Jl. Social Psychology, in D. R. Price-Williams Studies(Harmondsworth, (ed.), Cross-Cultural reprinted 1969), pp. 307-28. 38 Freud,Interpretation ofDreams, p. 522 n. 1. Cf. M. Delcourt,Oedipeou la ligende du conquerant (Liege and Paris, 1944), pp. 190-213.
3s
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servedto disguise and makeacceptable theforbidsymbolic meaning den impulse to incest, but this makes the Freudian assumption that a sexual interpretation must underliethese dreams.39 If that is as incestuous dreams can be seen as assumption rejected, byJung, the productof theirstandardculturalinterpretation. in Similarly, MelanesiaTikopia interpreted theobjectofdesirein a sexualdream as a stranger theirrelative,while the malignantly impersonating Trobriandislandersassumed thatthe dreamswere the productof dreamsand their magiccast bya third party.Incestuous indigenous are and interpretation mutually dependent, a Freudianinterpretation oftheallegedlatent content is an arbitrary intrusion intothepatterns of thought of another culture.40 III The intellectual locationof Artemidorus now demandscloserscruof Artemidorus within a Freudianperspective tiny.If the inclusion leads to systematic his exclusionfromthe history of distortions, to scienceis equally misleading.Both failto place him in relation of argument.Modern histories of ancient contemporary patterns scienceare almosttotally silenton dreaminterpretation in general and Artemidorus in particular. His mostrecenteditoreven wrote: feelthathis wholeworkwas an idle undertaking, now "Some might thatonirology, in the opinionof all but certainpsychotherapists, and folkofa superstitious bent,has joinedthecompany primitives, of such falseor 'fossil'sciencesas alchemy, and physiogastrology, Even which that the of those works classification perceive nomy".41 a modern definition of is generally impose knowledge problematic the dreaminterpretation.42 science,thereby By contrast, excluding
and theIrrational, 39Dodds, Greeks pp. 47, 61-2. coincide Jungargued thatthe sexual languageof dreamsdoes not necessarily from his rejection of Freud's distinction between witha sexualcontent. This follows manifest and latentcontent:C. G. Jung,Dreams(Princeton, 1974), pp. 49-50. See of also Firth,"Meaning of Dreams in Tikopia". For an analysisof theimplications 3 vols. (Paris, de la sexualiti, Artemidorus' sexual dreams,see M. Foucault,Histoire 1976-84),iii, pp. 16-50. 41 R. A. Pack, "Artemidorus Amer. Philol.Assoc., and hisWakingWorld", Trans. lxxxvi(1955), p. 280. 42 Similarly, in China, ii (Cambridge,1956), J. Needham,Scienceand Civilisation G. E. R. Lloyd,Magic,Reason p. 364, listsoneiromancy amongthepseudo-sciences. and Ideology and Experience (Cambridge, (Cambridge, 1979) and Science,Folklore in the boundariesof science, but he tends to followmodern 1983), is interested in thegrowth of rational L. and is primarily interested (modern)thought. categories of AncientScience", in his Ancient Edelstein,"Recent Trends in the Interpretation on theboundaries of medicine. Medicine(Baltimore,1967), pp. 401-39,is helpful
40
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of science in more recentperiodshas moved away froma history withsimilarities betweenpast and present scienceto preoccupation a concernfor the place of thinkers in the web of contemporary knowledge.In otherwords,in its former emphasison the progress of sciencewas inherently of discoveries, the history Whiggish;it is A comparable toArtemidorus nowstrongly contextualist.43 approach willilluminate in particular between Artemiconnections, neglected dorus and ancientmedicine. The boundariesof ancientdisciplinesare not coterminous with theirmodernanalogues.Galen, a contemporary of Artemidorus, is oftenseen as a white-coated and he wrote on doctor, dreams, yet dreams.44 includinga sectionon the diagnosisof diseases through He is in factproud of his own use of thistechnique:
Some people despisedreams,omensand portents. But we knowthat we haveoften made a diagnosis dreamsand, guidedbytwodreamsthatappearedto us very from we once made an incision intotheartery between thethumb and theindex clearly, oftheright ofitsown untilitstopped hand,and we allowedtheblood to flow finger I have also saved manyotherpeople by accord, as the dream had instructed. a cure prescribed in a dreamand, in addition, cleardreamsofmyfather applying formy turning to the studyof medicine.45 wereresponsible
Galen is not uncritical of treatment prescribed by Asclepius,which had to conform but a dream froma god was to medical theory, forGalen writing a treatise.46 thatGalen Sarton, responsible noting was a contemporary of Artemidorus, simplytreatsGalen's use of dreamsas a blindspotin hisrationalism, theissue. butthisprejudges As Edelstein ofGreekphysicians notes,"thegreat majority recognize the divinity of dreams".47
see T. S. Kuihn,TheEssential Tension statement, (Chicago 43For a programmatic and London, 1977), pp. 105-26;forthe practice,see, forexample,G. S. Rousseau and R. Porter(eds.), The Ferment Studiesin theHistoriography of Knowledge: of From toNewton: Science Paracelsus 1980); C. Webster, Eighteenth-Century (Cambridge, Science(Cambridge,1982); B. Vickers(ed.), Occult Magic and theMakingofModern and Scientific Mentalities in theRenaissance (Cambridge,1984). 44 Corpus in survives medicorum Graecorum, v.10.1, p. 108; a (probable)fragment re-edited Bull. delComitato Galen,vi.832-5(ed. Kuihn), by G. Guidorizzi, perla prep. dell' edizione naz. dei classici grecie latini,new ser., xxi (1973), pp. 81-105. On the ofthetext, ex insomniis" see G. Demuth,"Ps.-GaleniDe dignotione compilation (Diss. of the contemporary Rufus of Ephesus: Corpus 1972). Cf. the attitude Gottingen, medicorum Graecorum, Supp. iv, p. 34. 45 Galen, xvi.222-3(Kiihn); cf. Corpus medicorum Graecorum, v.8.1, p. 76, with on p. 225. The operation is describedagain at xi.314-15(Kiihn). commentary 46 Galen,De usupartium, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1909),ii, p. 110. Cf. ed. G. Helmreich, F. Kudlien, "Galen's Religious Belief', in V. Galen, iii.812 (Kiihn). See further Nutton(ed.), Galen: Problems and Prospects (London, 1981), pp. 117-30. 47 G. Sarton,Galen of Pergamon (Lawrence, 1954), pp. 83-5; Edelstein,Ancient of sciencehave evaluatedPtolemy's historians Medicine, p. 241. Similarly, Almagest
(cont.on p. 24)
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theargumentation ofArtemidorus has as itsmodelthe Conversely, ofone ofthecontemporary schoolsofmedicine. theories Therewere three medical schools in Artemidorus' the day, the Empiricists, and theMethodists. Rationalists different andincompatTheyoffered ible theoriesof medical knowledge:the Empiricists stressedthe the Rationalists of experience, thatof reason. The young primacy in hisdialogueOn MedicalExperience Galenused as protagonists two and Rationalist of theEmpiricist schoolswho laid leadingmembers ofprinciples.48The Methodists offered out thefundamental conflict an alternative to thistheoretical thatmedicine was conflict, arguing ofmanifest Artemidorus was clearly justa "knowledge generalities". influenced of the Empiricist school. There were by the principles three mainelements in theEmpiricist ofmedicalknowledge: theory tradition tou homoiou) and, above all, (historia), analogy(metabasis whichtogether constitute Artemidorus' (peiraor teresis), experience own methodology.49 whichtheEmpiricists understood as thetransmisFirst,tradition, sion ofthefindings ofearlier writers after evaluation on thegrounds of generalagreement between authorities and experience.50 Artemidoruswas steepedin theworksofhis predecessors; indeedhe claims tohaveobtained bookon theinterpretation ofdreams, copiesofevery some of whichwererareand in poor condition because of their age to them,by name refer (i praef.,p. 2 1. 10) and he does frequently or, moreoften, anonymously. They coverthewholeperiodduring which dream books were written, fromthe late fifth B.C. century to in learned his own Artemidorus was also well versed through day. on zoology. If livingcreatures treatises appearedin dreamsit was to havethebestpossibleinformation abouttheir obviously important normalbehaviour.As we have alreadynoted, Artemidorus cited Aristotle and a commentary on Aristotle about the mullet;he also ofMyndus.51 madeextensive onanimals use ofa treatise byAlexander
in the lightof modernastronomy, and have foundit puzzlingthathis othermajor was on astrology. work,the Tetrabiblos, 48 R. Walzer, Galen on Medical H. von (London, 1944). See generally Experience in B. F. Meyerand iatrikai", Staden,"Hairesis and Heresy:The Case ofthehaireseis E. P. Sanders(eds.), Jewish and Christian 3 vols. (London, 1980-2), Self-Definition, iii, pp. 76-100. Die griechische see K. Deichgriber, (Berlin, Empirikerschule 49 On theEmpiricists, in Hellenistic and Experience Medicine",Bull. 1930); H. von Staden,"Experiment of xxii(1975), pp. 178-99.Blum, "Studiesin theDream-Book Inst. ClassicalStudies, withArtemidorus. Artemidorus", pp. 81-91, arguedthe connection 50 Deichgriber,Griechische pp. 298-301. Empirikerschule, 51 historiam J. Fischer, "Ad artis veterumonirocriticae symbola" (Diss. Jena, 34-46 on Alexanderof Myndus. Physiognomical 1899), pp. 1-5 on predecessors,
(cont.on p. 25) (n. 47 cont.)
25
it was was most important, Though knowledgeof the tradition i one's to (cf. praef.,p. 2 predecessors quiteinadequatesimply copy conformon views was traditional of 1. 1). Acceptance dependent their that "if a woman dreams For pregnant itywithexperience. example, her that birth to a fish, theearlydreaminterpreters she is giving say that the dream means childwillbe mute.ButI haveobserved (eteresa) time"(ii. 18,p. 1341.10). Experience thechildwilllivefor onlya short was enabled him to rejectearlierviews. In addition,Artemidorus able to work out in detail some earliersketchy interpretations by distinctions thenecessary (iv praef., p. 236 1. 14). The critical making oftheEmpiricist is in general reminiscent to earlier attitude findings of their does use in Artemidorus fact and school, keytermhistoria whichforms dreamsand their outcomes ofninety-five thecollection Book v (iv.84, p. 300 1. 24; v praef.,p. 301 1. 3). orlessmisleadingly, "transitheargument from analogy, Secondly, tion by way of the similar" (he tou homoiou metabasis).For the one partof the thisis a simpleargument, movingfrom Empiricists or from one to another on to another the basis of remedy body thusto cure diarrhoea one could use a medlar observedsimilarities; is also followed This principle in placeofan apple.52 byArtemidorus. that havenotbeendealtwith shouldbe interpre"Dreams aboutfruits ted on the analogyof the examplesthathave been given".53He defendshimself againstthe generalchargeof omissionsby saying that "thingswhich are similarto otherthingsas, for example,a headband to a diadem, a hare to a deer, a camel to an elephant, to perfume, or thatpigs and and otherkinds of fragrance saffron as their have been omitted or not birdshave thesamemeaning flesh, workedout because theyare self-evident" (iv praef.,p. 238 1. 11). fromanalogyallowed doctorand dreaminterpreter The argument withinan all-embracing alike flexibility system. theother The third two,giving underpinned principle, experience, schoolits(ancient)name(empeiria/experience). Galen theEmpiricist summedup thelogicofthistypeofknowin On MedicalExperience of things often seen in the same way is (teresis) ledge: "observation I them the called, think, (namely, Empiricists) by experience (empeiwriters of the second century A.D. also drew on this scientific knowledge,thus See, forexample,Artemidorus parallel to Artemidorus'. producinginterpretations 2 iii.12, p. 209 1. 8 and Polemo, in Scriptores Graeci,ed. R. Foerster, physiognomici vols. (Leipzig, 1893), i, p. 176 1. 7 on the ichneumon. 52 Deichgraber, Griechische Empirikerschule, pp. 301-5. s3 i.73, p. 80 1. 5; i.50, p. 57 1. 10; i.52, p. 59 1. 18; ii.25, p. 145 1. 9; ii.57, p. 186 1. 4.
(n. 51 cont.)
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ria); it is drawnfrommanyindividualinstances".54 Such observawas the tions,whichtheschooldividedintovariousdifferent types, it enabledcriticism ofreceived basis of their tradition epistemology; fortheargument and it providedthestarting-point from analogy.It of the logical methodof theirrivals,the also generatedcriticism as producing and conjectures Rationalists, merely plausibilities (piwhichwerenotgrounded in knowledge orderived from thana;eikos) 55 experience. as fundamental to his own Artemidorus also regarded experience work:
withmethodsthatare I have never courtedmass applause or concernedmyself Rather,I have alwayscalled upon experience pleasingto phrase-mongers. (peira) has been the as the witnessand guidingprincipleof my statements. Everything result ofexperience, sinceI have notdone anything else, and havedevotedmyself, of dreams(ii.70, p. 202 1. 14). day and night,to the interpretation
of his book were not just insistedthat the contents Artemidorus hisownexperience drawnfrom earlier books,butfrom (ii.70, p. 202 1. 9):
of the I have rubbed shouldersformanyyearswiththe much despiseddiviners attitude and who raise their market-place. People who assume a holier-than-thou dismissthemas beggars,charlatans fashion and buffoons; in a superior eyebrows in thedifferent citiesand festivals but I have ignoredtheir Rather, disparagement. of Greece,Asia and Italyand in the largestand mostpopulousof islandsI have listenedto old dreamsand theirconsequences(i praef.,p. 2 1. 13; cf. v patiently praef.,p. 301 1. 10).
The appeal to experienceappears not only in methodological ofactualdreams.For example, passagesbutalso in theinterpretation a "I withdreamsofbecoming gladiator haveoften observed (eteresa) a woman thatthis typeof dream indicatesthata man will marry to the typeof weapon thathe dreams whose character corresponds whomhe is fighting". he is usingor to thetypeofopponent against detailshe concludes:"I have not discussionof the necessary After reliedupon conjectures here,norhaveI constructed (pithaneuomenos) to a merely (kata eikos),butwithexperience plausiblesystem (peira) madeobservations outcomeI haveoften ofeach individual (eteresa)" of actualoutcomes (ii.32, p. 154 1. 22). The relianceon experience and plausibility is emphasized thanon conjecture of dreamsrather in thework(ii.66, p. 190 1. 9; ii.70, p. 197 1. 7; iv praef., elsewhere parallelto the p. 236 1. 13; iv. 45, p. 271 1. 21) and is precisely forspeculation than of the Rationalists rather criticism Empiricist of individualinstances. repeatedobservation
54
p. 103 1. 17. Empirikerschule, Deichgriber,Griechische ss Ibid., pp. 291-7; pp. 104 1. 24; 105 1. 17; 244 1. 34, on pithanos/eikos.
27
makesforhis reliance The claimthatArtemidorus upon personal thanupon earlier worksis strongly rather supported by experience are no socialor political thatthere anachronisms in hiswork. thefact There are no dreams,exceptthoseexplicitly fromearliersources, which presupposea contextearlierthan the establishment of the there are manydreams whichare clearly and, conversely, principate, dated to this period. There are dreamsabout the Roman emperor himselffar away in Italy and ones about the gladiatorial shows whichspreadfrom Rome to theGreekworldundertheprincipate.56 Artemidorus does show some knowledgeof Italy and mainland one would expectfrom his travels, as but his familiarity is Greece, with own area of Asia his Minor. He names various individgreatest uals and local deitiesfrom hereand even used the particular terms for privateassociationswhich derived fromhis mother'spart of about the need to takecultural Lydia.57He is in factquite explicit into in account dream changes interpretation:
thatdreamsaboutwashing werenotinauspicious, since thought Veryearlywriters knewnothing ofpublicbathsbutwashedin so-called bath-tubs. Laterwriters, they since public baths had by then come into existence,consideredthatdreamsof or seeinga bath,even ifone did notbathin it, indicated bad luck washingoneself follow thisold view,usingthesame criteria; . Some modernwriters theyare in errorand do not followexperience (peira).
In the past when baths were taken only afterfighting or other it was reasonable for baths to be considered strenuousactivity, of toil or battle,but now the bath is quite unlucky,as reminders simplya path to luxury.And thus washingin baths which are and moderately heatedis auspicious(i.64, p. 68 1. beautiful, bright reflects theincreased of public 15). Artemidorus perfectly provision baths(and theirmerging withgymnasia) in the Roman period.His ofdreams followed indetail themethodological interpretation through of the primacy of experience.ss principle Artemidorus' and practice need to be set in Empiricalarguments a broadercontext.His research of travelling roundthe programme
56 F. in theRomanWorld Millar,TheEmperor (London, 1977), pp. 15, 162-3,284, dans l'Orientgrec(Paris, 1940), index, s.v. 499, 528. L. Robert, Les gladiateurs on festivals, see L. Robert,Etudes gpigraphiques et Art~midore;for Artemidorus (Paris, 1938), pp. 76-108,and L. Robert,Hellenica,12 vols. (Limoges philologiques and Paris, 1940-65),xi-xii,pp. 333-8. 57 L. Robert,"Documents d'Asie Mineure",Bull. Corresp. Hell., cii (1978), pp. and phratria: 538-43; symbiosis ii.12, p. 126 1. 1, iv.44, p. 271 1. 11, v.82, p. 321 1. 22; withRobert,Hellenica,xi-xii,pp. 220-1, and "Documentsd'Asie Mineure",p. 540. 58 For interpretations of othernew itemsof culture,see i.18, p. 26 1. 19 (wigs), i.30, p. 36 1. 15 (beards), i.66, p. 73 1. 4 (drinking-cup).
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Greekworldin orderto collectexamplesof dreamsand their actual outcomes is moststriking. The American C. S. Hall may psychologist have collected10,000 dreamsat the Institute forDream Research, in the ancientworld such industry is rare,but some California;59 ofArtemidorus did carry outextensive research. The contemporaries writer ofa physiognomical treatise heldthesameidealofinvestigation draws his material almostexclusively from and, like Artemidorus, the contemporary world.60 observation of over Similarly Ptolemy's withinthe limitsof accuracy 1,020 starswas a greatachievement, in thattheinstruments Galen's Or, thefieldofmedicine permitted. a massive and theoretical empirical achievement; corpusrepresents ofthedigestive and vivisections and nervoussystems his dissections areparticularly notable. Therewerealsoearlier medical investigations theforty-two whichparallel Artemidorus: case histories in thefourthwhich form "one of the star B.C. century HippocraticEpidemics, of detailed observation in Greek are comexamples early science",61 to dreams with their the in outcomes Artemidorus' parable ninety-five fifth book. In bothastronomy and medicine almost all newsystematic ceased afterabout A.D. 200 and scholarship observation turnedto in effort to and commentaries an consolidate rather thanto digests extendknowledge. Artemidorus' observations are a neglected aspect of thisperiodof Greekinvestigations intonature. betweenArtemidorus The parallelsin methodology and the Empiricistschool of medicineor otherancient"scientists"are very is notthatArtemidorus but theimplication was, after all, a striking, "scientist".Rather,theparallelshelp to defamiliarize ancient medicine. As we have alreadynoted in the case of the debate between in the ancientworld(even if and Rationalists, research Empiricists ofcorroboration servedthefunction rather thanofrefutaextensive) theories werenotofsuch a kindas to be tion,and thebasic physical even in principle.62 falsifiable and modern is emphasized ancient The gap between principles by ofthedoctors ofthearguments and ofArtemidorus theemployment on otherforms of ancientdivination. Galen "records"a discussion bird observation of betweenGalen himself on divination flights by one from the other a Greekfrom Asia and twobirddiviners, Arabia,
Hall, MeaningofDreams. Polemo, in Scriptores Graeci,i, p. 192 1. 17; cf., forexample,pp. physiognomici 118 1. 19, 282 1. 12, forpersonalobservations. 61 Lloyd, Magic, Reason and Experience, pp. 183-4on Ptolemy, p. 167 on Galen, p. 154 on Epidemics. 62 Ibid., pp. 221, 210.
59 60
29
Minor. The Greekdiviner employsthesame tripartite epistemology as Artemidorus and the Empiricist schoolof medicine.63 There was betweenthe two divinerson the significance of the disagreement appearanceof the bird on rightor left,and Galen added an extra theproximity of thebirdmattered. complication by askingwhether The Arabianrepliedthatit made no difference:
betweenleftand rightsides and argued fora But the Greek drew a distinction measuredspace; he said thatthishad beenwritten and that aboutby birddiviners, unmeasured distances wereopposedto measured distances. He pointed outthat the booksofPolles,Athenas, Chaeremon and Artemidorus theson ofPhocasand other famousbird diviners agreedwithhim.
who says thathe had composed manyotherworks Artemidorus, 1. 15), wrotea book on birddivination 235 whichis here (iii.66, p. citedas authoritative. In otherwords,theGreekdiviner acceptsthe value oftradition, himself had done. Unlikethe justas Artemidorus whichmade him in Arabian,he also drawsa seriesof distinctions, Galen'seyesmoreskilled."For as skill allowsbyexperience (empeiria) ofwhatis seen, thedisagreement thetwomen] judgement [between tookplace on the groundsof drawing or notdrawing distinctions". was the basis of the Greek diviner's Experience distinctions, just as itwas for Artemidorus' elaborate the Greek diviner typology. Finally, effeminate menandthose whofollowed argueson thebasisofanalogy: femaleprofessions countedas women forthe (like wool-working) as thebestwriters had said. This unique purposeofbirddivination, reference glimpseintoGreekdivination by birds,withits felicitous to Artemidorus, with neatlyparallelsArtemidorus' preoccupation tradition, analogyand, above all, experience. The argument from had also beenemployed in defence experience ofdivination in general Artemidorus was not byGreekphilosophers. the first who soughtto counterscepticism about predictive dreams and otherformsof divination.Followingvarious total or partial of divination in thethird and secondcenturies rejections B.c., Posiofthesecondcentury donius,the Stoicphilosopher B.C., articulated an extensive seriesof explanations of divination; his unfortunately work is nowknown Cicero'suse ofitinOn Divination. largely through Posidoniusdistinguished betweentwo typesof divination, natural/ divine and artificial, the formerbeing propheticfrenzy and the latter divination sacrifices or birdflights. Artificial through portents,
63Corpus medicorum Graecorum,v.9.1, pp. 128-30, with K. Deichgraber, aus der medizinischen der AntikeI", Philologus, ci (1957), "Ausgewahltes Literatur in Greece. pp. 135-47.Robert,Hellenica,ii, pp. 43-50 on Arab birddiviners
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or medicine. as a humanskill,like farming was justified divination but like themit was based on observation Like themit was fallible, fieldofenquiry overlongperiodsoftime."In every and experience begat an greatlengthof time employedin continualobservation fund of knowledge,which may be acquired even extraordinary of the gods, since repeated or inspiration without the intervention follows makesit clearwhateffect observation any givencause, and likeArtemidorus, whatsignprecedes event".64 Posidonius, anygiven He also on the groundof experience. divination (artificial) justified himas served but divination to bydreams, they paid muchattention divination of natural an example (i.129). Artemidorus, by contrast, moresecure ofdreams tomaketheinterpretation intellectually sought while of artificial it in the divination, avoiding category by placing viewson the causationof dreams.Divination the snaresof offering and acceptable as by dreams was thus made as comprehensible sacrifices. or divination by portents to the ofanimalssacrificed oftheentrails Divination byinspection "In cites. which Artemidorus model in fact the is explicitly only gods sacrificial should imitate the one a an giving opinion (on dream) into For theyknow how each individualsign fits diviners(thytai). as muchon thetotalsum thewhole and theybase theirjudgement of the signsas on each individual sign" (iii.66, p. 235 1. 3; cf. i.12, was indeed the 1. Such divination 195 1. 22 and 20 ii.69, 19). p. p. in a Greekcity: formof divination practised onlyinstitutionalized of sacrifices businesswas precededby the offering official by civic did notgo welland that who could decide thatthesacrifices officials, was dream interpretation the gods were displeased. By contrast, deterwerenotofficially Publicactions to Greekprediction. marginal ofAsclepius ofpriests theexception minedbyitand,with interpreting werenotpublic dreamsabout curesfordiseases,dreaminterpreters officials. in was thuswidelyaccepted,but marginal Dream interpretation messadivine where dreams world status.As in theArabic conveyed means of interpreting them,65 ges but wheretherewere no official was somewhat dream books were widespread.But theirstanding ofmarket-place thedreaminterpreters dubious.Mostpeoplescorned was consciousthathis own work and Artemidorus and festivals, well educated.His work meetthe same fate.He was himself might includes numerousallusions to and quotationsfromthe classics
64 65
i.109. Cicero, On Divination, arabe (Leiden, 1966), p. 316. T. Fahd, La divination
31
withthe more fromHomer to Menander;it even showsfamiliarity writers Heracleides of Pontus recherche and Parthenias Lycophron, are also that 287 1. There Artemidorus had learned 9). signs (iv.63, p. the form of ancient the basic logic of therhetorical schools, highest aim was to make dream interpretation Artemidorus' education.66 The bookwas dedicated tothishighculture. toan eminent acceptable is veryapologeticabout his style(ii orator,thoughArtemidorus of the praef.,p. 100 1. 15), which does not adopt manyfeatures then in Like language vogue. archaizing Melampus, writingon or like Galen, Artemidorus divination writes by twitches, relatively a technical as befitted treatise.67 What,ifany,immeunpretentiously, diate impacthis workhad, we do not know. People continued to thefuture, buttheinterpretation of acceptthatdreamscould predict dreams remained theFreudian transformation, haphazard.Onlywith to whichwe now turn,was dreaminterpretation institutionalized as a fully scientific procedure.
IV
of dreaminterpretation, Artemidorus' role in the history and hence in the genesis of modernpsychological deserves further thought, consideration. He was an authority bothforlaterpredictive theories and for Freud himself.But Freud's theories,which claim to be universal in scope and based on a modeloftheinternal of workings the person,marka radicalbreakwiththetradition ofArtemidorus. Artemidorus' is the only dream book to survivefromantiquity. He aimed to incorporate all theinsights ofhis predecessors, making any subsequentworksuperfluous (iii praef.,p. 204 1. 14; iii.66, p. ofposterity 233 1. 10), and in thejudgement he was successful.68 No other dream book was transmitted throughthe dark ages, while Artemidorus himself was a figure of authority in twoquite separate traditions. New dreambookswritten in theByzantine perioddo not borrow substantially fromArtemidorus,69 but our earliestextant of Artemidorus dates fromthe eleventhcentury, and manuscript
Blum, "Studies in the Dream-Bookof Artemidorus", pp. 72-80. "Koine" (SitzBer.Akad. Wiss. Wien, phil.Ibid., pp. 23-51; L. Radermacher, hist. KI., ccxxiv.5,1947), pp. 48-9. Only in theByzantine periodwere(some) ofhis "corrected"to conform to archaizing Atticpurity. manuscripts 68 For fragments ofhis predecessors, see D. del Corno,Graecorum de reonirocritica (Milan, 1969). scriptorum reliquiae 69 S. M. Oberhelman, "The Oneirocritic oftheLate Romanand ByzanLiterature tineEras ofGreece"(Univ. ofMinnesota Ph.D. thesis,1981);also S. M. Oberhelman, 1 (1980), pp. 487-503. to the Byzantine Oneirokritika", "Prolegomena Byzantion,
66 67
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interest in himwas sufficient forhis languageto be "corrected" to a ofAchmet, Artemipurerstandard. AlongwiththeLatintranslation doruswas themain(but unacknowledged) sourcefora Latindream in 1165.This Latintext, book composedin Constantinople ofwhich fivemanuscripts Artemidorus' survive, mayhavehelpedto transmit world.70 Artemidorus ideas to theLatin-speaking was also translated as a practicalguide to into Arabic in the ninthor tenthcentury, and had a considerable influence on Arabic dream interpretation, The development ofprinting allowedArtemidorus toreacha wider thereappearedtranslations into audience: in the sixteenth century ofthe Latin, Italian,French,Englishand German.(The popularity was such thatit reacheda twenty-fourth edition Englishtranslation was also cited in new dream books. For by 1740.) Artemidorus and seventeenth-century Germandream example, both sixteenthDreamDictionary, first in America booksand theUniversal published himas a majorauthority.72 at the start ofa in 1795,treat Cardanus, treatise on dream refers to Artemidorus interpretation, systematic and expoundsprinciples whichclearly standin writers, amongother he interprets Like Artemidorus, dreamsby likethesame tradition. intoaccountthedreamer's ness withwhattheypredict, taking age, status and sex, occupation.73 an eighteenth-century WilliamWarburton, Englishdivine,even for the of Egypt, of his as argument highantiquity suggested, part tothesymbolic ruleswereall conformable that Artemidorus' hieroglyin thedevelopment stage phicsofHorapollo(whichwerethusan early to Artemidorus of language).74 But the mosthandsometribute ap70 S. Collin-Roset,"Le Liber Thesauri Occultide Pascalis Romanus", Archives et littiraire du Moyen d'histoire doctrinale Age, xxx (1964), pp. 111-98.The medieval ofArtemidorus: S. R. Fischer,"Dreambooksand theInterpretation westwas ignorant ofMedievalLiterary lxv(1983), pp. 1-20;J. Le Dreams",Archiv Kulturgeschichte, fiir midieval(Paris, 1985), pp. 265-330. Goff, L'imaginaire 71 On thetranslator, vonArtemidors "War HunainderUbersetzer see M. Ullmann, Die Welt desIslams,newser.,xiii(1971), pp. 204-11.Foritsinfluence, Traumbuch?", see Fahd, Divinationarabe, pp. 248-9, 326-8, 336; C. Magdi, Die Kapitel iiber desDiyj'ad-Din aus demKitab at-tahrr undTraumdeutung Traumtheorie fi'ilmat-tafsir al-Gazirr (Freiburgim Breisgau,1971). 72Fischer,"Onirocriticae Traumhistoriam symbola",pp. 46-50; L. Grenzmann, buchArtemidori (Baden-Baden, 1980), pp. 185-217, on Germany.H. B. Weiss, Bull. New YorkPublicLib., xlviii(1944), pp. 528, 651"Oneirocritica Americana", 2 and plate. insomnia libriiv (Basle, 1562). Cf. omnis generis explicantes 73 Somnia Synesiorum Libri IIII", Bibliotheque A. Browne, "Girolamo Cardano's Somniorum Synesiorum et renaissance, d'humanisme xli (1979), pp. 123-35. ofMoses, 4th edn. (London, 1765), iv.4. 74 The Divine Legation
oneiromancy.71
33
pears at the startof the prefaceto a modernguide to predictive and advisorof all who engage dreams: "This littlebook, thefriend of theirdreams,has been inspiredby theimmortal in investigation of Ephesus. He, withhis learned worksof the greatArtemidorus of of the becamethefirst to make the Marvellous, region exploration The of human such writers our existence".7s relationship intelligible continued to within is unproblematic; work to past knowledge they of dreamsas predictive untilthe nineteenth a continuous tradition centuries.Dream interpretation, and even the twentieth however, no doubt at all levels of a marginal remained activity, practised society, or related to broader institutionalized theories butnotformally about the world. tooka fundamentally Freud's dreaminterpretations newpath,but for he maintained theold oneirocritic The dominant tradition. respect view of thenineteenth as he saw it, assumedthat scientific century, theproductof stimuli, internal or external; the dreamsweresimply classic example is that of Maury, who dreamed of his trial and undertheFrenchRevolution and awoketo findthatthe guillotining bed-head had hit him on the nape of his neck. No meaningor was ascribedto theactualcontent ofthedreams.Freud significance ofdreamshas to explainwhythedreamtook arguedthatthestudent that form ofan obviousphysical (evenifitwas theproduct particular and he is therefore towards his ancient stimulus) sympathetic predethe meaningof dreams.He notesthat"the cessorswho interpreted in antiquity is . . . based uponcorrect respect paid to dreams psychothoughdreamsof coursedid notgive knowledge logicalinsight",76 an idea which had disappearedeven frompopular of the future, havea sense"whichhas escapedexact belief.Dreamsand parapraxes science. So let us embracethe prejudiceof the ancientsand of the in thefootsteps ofthedreaminterpreters of people and let us follow antiquity"." The words used here, "der antikenTraumdeuter", remind us that the title of Freud's book Die Traumdeutung was to evoke this ancient tradition. designed ancientmethodsof Accordingto Freud, therewere two distinct the of dreams. the First, discovering meaning "symbolic"method,
Le vingtieme Artimidore: la nouvelle (Monaco, 1951), p. 11. cli des songes Freud, Interpretation ofDreams,pp. 87-8 on Maury,p. 775. Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1916-17,cited from 77 Ibid., p. 783 n. 1; Introductory with 1973), pp. 113-16.For Freud's preoccupation Penguinedn., Harmondsworth, classicalantiquity, see S. C. Bernfeld, "Freud and Archaeology", TheAmerican Imago, viii (1951), pp. 107-28(psychoanalytic); C. and H. Weiss, AntikeWelt,xvi (1985), pp. 43-52.
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such as Joseph'sexplanation of Pharaoh's dreamsabout seven fat kine and seven lean kine. Interpretations based upon thismethod were essentially and not reducible arbitrary, relying upon intuition to a formal the"decoding"method method.Secondly, which"treats dreams as a kindofcryptography in whicheach signcanbe translated into anothersign havinga knownmeaning,in accordancewitha whomhe had read in a recent fixedkey". Freud citesArtemidorus, withparticular Germantranslation, forhis improvement on respect thepurely mechanical Artemidorus "takesinto "decoding"method. ofthedream,butalso thecharacter accountnotonlythecontent and circumstances of the dreamer;so thatthe same dream-element will have a different man or, let us meaningfora richman, a married an what it for from has a a orator, say, poor man, bacheloror a to also referred the ofa dreamof Freud interpretation merchant".78 theGreatbyAristander at thesiegeofTyre(Tyros) Alexander (iv.24, p. 260 1. 3). Alexanderdreamed of a satyr(satyros) dancing on his shield, which was encouragingly and, in the event, correctly Aristander as by meaningthatTyre would be his (sa interpreted is "The whichhas a sufficiently Tyros=Tyre yours). interpretation, was the artificial undoubtedly right appearance, one".9" Even so, the with method was that the thereliability of the "decoding" problem could not and that the be key guaranteed, "key" anyway operated not on the dreamas a whole but onlyon individual elements. "The techniquewhichI describein thepages thatfollowdiffers in one essential from theancient method:it imposesthetask respect ofinterpretation of himself".80The novelmethod upon thedreamer freeassociationon the part of the dreamerwas designedto allow manner from to pass in a controlled manifest to latent interpretation content. But Freud cameto see thatsometimes free associations were blockedand he was forcedto return to the interpretation of dream ofTheInterpretation edition The first symbolism. ofDreamsincluded butin thefourth on thissubject, edition of1914, onlytwoparagraphs under the influence of Stekel and Jung,Freud createda lengthy in partfrom earlier scattered His relationsection, remarks.81 separate thusbecamewarmer and hewas eventempted shiptotheold tradition a newdreambookon thedecoding The temptation towrite principle.
Freud, Interpretation ofDreams,pp. 170-3. Lectures, pp. 114, 274-5. 79Ibid., p. 173; Freud, Introductory ofDreams,p. 171 n. 2. 80 Freud, Interpretation Lectures, pp. 182-203.J. Forrester, 81 Ibid., pp. 466-506; cf. Freud, Introductory (London, 1980), ch. 3, tracesthedevelopLanguageand theOrigins ofPsychoanalysis on symbolism. mentof Freud's thinking
78
35
listsofthemeaning was resisted, butFreuddoes anyway givelengthy of symbols. For example, "rooms in dreams are usually women a slightly word for "women"]; if the derogatory [Frauenzimmer, is are represented, thisinterpretation variouswaysin and outofthem Artemidorus a reference to To this he added to doubt". scarcely open "Thus, for instance,a (ii.10, p. 115 1. 9) as part of a footnote: standsfora wife,if thereis one".82This discussionof bedchamber reflects ofdreamsymbolism Freud'sawareness earlier interpretations He criticized of ofarbitrary ofthedangers interpretation symbolism. Stekel,withwhom he had by now broken,on thesegroundsand his owninterpretation to support byadducingtheparallel attempted Dream symbolism was established as an offolklore.83 interpretations it removed theburdenof methodofinterpretation, though auxiliary fromdreamerto analyst.Freud had in partrejoined interpretation have continued and his followers to respond the ancienttradition, Artemidorus. to warmly affected Dream books were radically by Freud's work.They are in no prediction,but in analysis of the longer engaged mostly character.84 runagainst dreamer's Freud's insistence They naturally of free on the primary but association, importance theycan seek in Freud's own workon dream symbolism. justification They also as an authority. For example,a studyof stillrefer to Artemidorus on how theypick out dreams about Queen Elizabeth II remarks which lie buried beneathlayersof self"facts of our personality for thepowerof deception"and also praisesArtemidorus recognizing The introspective in dream-thoughts. natureofmainstream allegory continueto cite Artemimoderndream books, whichnevertheless in focusbrought is an of the shift fundamental about index dorus, Freud.85 by
Freud, Interpretation ofDreams,pp. 467, 471. Ibid., pp. 466-7, 537 on Stekel. S. Freud and D. E. Oppenheim,"Dreams in Works Folklore", in the StandardEdition of the Complete Psychological ofSigmund continue.Lee, Freud,24 vols. (London, 1953-74),xii, pp. 177-203.The arguments in Zulu Dreaming",and P. Kline, Fact and Fantasyin Freudian "Social Influences (London, 1972), pp. 208-26,bothargue forFreud's dreamsymbolism. Theory with 5thedn. (London, Time, J.W. Dunne, An Experiment 84 Thereare exceptions. dreamsas evidenceforhis theory whichreversed 1939), used allegedlyprecognitive oftheflowoftime;and J. von Buttlar, thenormalpicture (London, 1978), Time-Slip concludesthat"dreamexperiences Artemidorus pp. 68-70,after discussing represent level of reality and providea foretaste of thefuture". another Dreams,pp. 41, Jung, of dreams,"an anticipation in the 98-9, 106-8,allows fora "prospective"function offuture unconscious conscious thisis notprophetic. achievements", but,as he argues, 85B. Masters,DreamsaboutH.M. theQueen (London, 1972), pp. 123, 138; M. of Dreams and Dreamers",Ji. Hist. Ideas, xxvii Curti,"The AmericanExploration and nineteenth centuries. (1966), pp. 391-416,focuseson the eighteenth
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Freud's theory, in moving from ofthefuture toanalysis prediction ofthepersonality, aimsto explainthedeep structures the underlying randomand bizarreimages of dreams. The dreamer's seemingly thestructures ofthemind,thempersonallife,as refracted through selves underpinned of the brain,accountfor by parallelstructures thecontent ofdreams.Freud, likeArtemidorus, is engagedin systean amorphous to recognize field;bothare trying matizing patterns. But Artemidorus avoids decidingon theoriginof dreams explicitly schoolof medicine, is verysceptical on the and, like the Empiricist of causation. He warns his son that: question
willhavea reason. thateach dreamfulfilment you mustnotbe misledintothinking For manythings for come truecontinually somepeople,and we knowthat a pattern governsthemfromthe factthattheyalwayscome truein the same way, but we cannotdiscoverthereasonswhytheycome truein thisway. So I consider thatone comes to knowthe outcomeof dreamsfrom but the causes of dreams experience, one's own intuition from (iv.20, p. 253 1. 15).
is rooted in deep structures Freud's pattern By contrast, recognition a figure of thetwentieth and in thisFreud is obviously century. ofdeep structures A majorconsequenceofFreud's pursuit is that the studyof dreamsbecame a recognized partof science.Whereas in theancient worlddreamshad been peripheral to themaininstituthefuture, tions ofpredicting Freudplaceddreams within thedomain science.His successwas slow to come; only351 of institutionalized six yearsofpublication. But copies ofthebook weresold in thefirst The Interpretation of Dreams became one of the key textsin the of both psychology and psychoanalysis as reputable establishment scientific professions. for The current standingof Freud has createdtwo temptations and especiallypsychohistorians: and anachronhistorians teleology ofmethodological are also instances ism. Bothtemptations problems - the research.First,teleology thataffect otherareas of historical to its roots,and thus to naturaldesire of a movement understand of those who place search for heroic ancestors.This motivation of is paralleledby a the Freud Artemidorus predecessors among of science or on similartendencyin earlierwork on the history anachronism the more women'shistory.86 probgeneral Secondly, a problem on other ofmodern lem oftheimposition societies, theory another comes from when the theory whichis particularly pressing whether to the nineof Freudian The theory, application discipline.
86 Historyof science, above, pp. 22-3. 0. Hufton,"Women in History:Early no. 101(Nov. 1983),p. 126;J.W. Scott, "Women ModernEurope", Past andPresent, no. 101 (Nov. 1983), p. 145. in History:The Modern Period", Past and Present,
37
confirms ourownpreoccuor to Artemidorus, teenth merely century pations.So too, the"New EconomicHistory"imposesneo-classical even though itsassumptions on to thelastcentury, economictheory and rational of a stableeconomy, competition entrepreneurs perfect is notto adoptbut The roleofthehistorian are largely implausible.87 to challengereceivedwisdom. Artedifferent and Freudhaveprofoundly Artemidorus objectives. of Dreams consists midorus'Interpretation discovering corresponof outcomesand forthispurposehe dences betweendreamsand their can sidestepthe problemof the causationof dreams.For almosta means- oracles,sacrifices had sought Greeks millennium byvarious therelationship between and and dreams- to comprehend present to the of dreams but Artemidorus future, interpretation sought put a sophisticated on a moresecurefooting by employing methodology schoolsofmedicine.The also employed by one ofthecontemporary the correct was thusable, by applying dreaminterpreter categories similarities to the dreamand dreamer,to establishthe appropriate warnedhis son that betweendreamand outcome,but Artemidorus to dreamsshouldbe too muchhiddenmeaning "thosewho attribute intowhata dream since theyhave no insight withcontempt treated on 286 1. Freud's ." .. 13). (iv.63, Traumdeutung, p. mayrepresent of dreams. the otherhand, impliedmorethanmerely interpretation WhereasArtemito the searchfortheir meaning. "Deutung" refers whichplaced a highvalue a longtradition within doruswas working for createda new significance on dreams, Freud self-consciously but intothe past. not into the future, them.Dreams led obscurely scornedwas forFreud the whichArtemidorus The hiddenmeaning goal of his royalroad. Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret S. R. F. Price
87 D. Cannadine,"Thoughtson theNew EconomicHistory", Rev. Books, London 15 Apr. 1982, pp. 15-18.

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THE FUTURE OF DREAMS: FROM FREUD TO ARTEMIDORUS*

PAST AND PRESENT

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DREAMS: FREUD TO ARTEMIDORUS

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DREAMS: FREUD TO ARTEMIDORUS

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i.109. Cicero, On Divination, arabe (Leiden, 1966), p. 316. T. Fahd, La divination

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