Dreams and Experience in Classical Antiquity

351 Pages·2009·1.02 MB·English

by  William V. Harris

Dreams and Experience
in Classical Antiquity

Dreams and Experience
in Classical Antiquity
William V. Harris
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England
2009
Copyright © 2009 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harris, William V. (William Vernon)
Dreams and experience in classical antiquity / William V. Harris.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-03297-2 (alk. paper)
1. Dreams—Greece—History—To 1500. 2. Dreams—Rome. I. Title.
BF1078.H2955 2009
154.6'30938—dc22 2008045081
for Silvana, Neil and Kelly

“Why, dreams ain’t—nothing.”
“Oh, yes they is!” she insisted, her eyes flaming...
W. E. B. Du Bois, The Quest of the Silver Fleece(1911), ch. 1.

Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Abbreviations xiii
Preface xv
Introduction: Then and Now 1
I. From Epiphany to Episode: A Revolution in the Description of
Dreams 23
Epiphany or Messenger Dreams—Definition and Origin of the Epiphany
Dream—Varieties of the Epiphany Dream—Distinguishing the Epiphany
Dream from the Modern Dream—Other Kinds of Greek and Roman Dream
Reports—The Force of Convention—Actual Epiphany Dreams?—The
Epiphany Dream in Danger—Galen and Aelius Aristides—Late-antique
Stimuli—Epiphany Dreams in the Middle Ages—The Late-medieval and
Early-modern Demise—Explaining the Change
II. Greek and Roman Dreams That Were Really Dreamt 91
Is This Tale Tall?—An Essential Question—The Matter of Authenticity—
The Problem of Memory—Dream-like Dreams—Mendacious Historians
and Biographers—Some Strong Candidates—Perpetua—Artemidorus—
Constantine—Augustine—Aelius Aristides—Writing Good Stories
ix