THEME: Looking into the future ARTEMIDORUS’ ONEIROCRITICA
Perhaps the most famous dream interpretation of the ancient world are the six dreams interpreted by Joseph (Genesis 37-41). These involve various dreams: his own, his fellow prisoners, even the pharaoh's. Joseph declares that the interpretation of dreams belongs to God (Genesis 40:8), and other ancient religions, too, placed significant importance on the interpretation of dreams, regarding them as religious experiences, even down to catering for having dreams within temple precincts. Almost every ancient culture regarded dreams and dream interpretation as important whether it be Assyrian, Chinese, Egyptian, Hebrew, Celtic, Greek, Roman, or any other.
On the other hand, we might argue that the inclusion of dreams and their interpretation in historical and literary accounts, such as the many in Herodotus, are more likely to be fictional or embellished versions of events, included to make some point or connection (perhaps even the invention of the author). Whilst this may be the case, the ancient world took great care over the interpretation of dreams and the importance of dreaming. The treatment of ailments at the various Asclepieion complexes throughout the ancient world (see Ancient History 12) involved the patient dreaming in the temple, reporting their dreams to the priests, and then being prescribed a cure based on the interpretation of the dream.
The Oneirocritica
The only handbook of dream interpretation to survive from antiquity is the five-book () by Artemidorus (sometimes called Daldianus), a diviner from Ephesus,has been argued he was active in the late second and early third century and wrote between AD 180–210. The first books may have been written soon after AD 140 and the last around AD 210. Artemidorus mentions the Eusebian Games at Puteoli, established in AD 138 (1.26.3) and later books mention Aristides (4.2.8), Alexander (4.33.3) and Paulus (4.80.2) who have been identified with figures of the early third century. The first three books are dedicated to a certain Cassius Maximus, identified by some as the second century sophist, Maximus of Tyre (AD 180–192), but identification is not certain.
