Dreams and Dreaming in the Roman Empire: Cultural Memory and ImaginationThe history and literature of the Roman Empire is full of reports of dream prophecies, dream ghosts and dream gods. This volume offers a fresh approach to the study of ancient dreams by asking not what the ancients dreamed or how they experienced dreaming, but why the Romans considered dreams to be important and worthy of recording. Dream reports from historical and imaginative literature from the high point of the Roman Empire (the first two centuries AD) are analysed as objects of cultural memory, records of events of cultural significance that contribute to the formation of a group's cultural identity. The book also introduces the term 'cultural imagination', as a tool for thinking about ancient myth and religion, and avoiding the question of 'belief', which arises mainly from creed-based religions. The book's conclusion compares dream reports in the Classical world with modern attitudes towards dreams and dreaming, identifying distinctive features of both the world of the Romans and our own culture. |
Contents
1 | |
23 | |
2 Dream Reports in Historical Literature | 75 |
3 Dream Reports in Imaginative Literature | 125 |
4 How to Deal with Dreams | 177 |
Conclusion | 227 |
Categories of Dream Reports and Catalogue | 246 |
Tables | 274 |
290 | |
305 | |
Other editions - View all
Dreams and Dreaming in the Roman Empire: Cultural Memory and Imagination Juliette Harrisson No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
action Aelius Aristides Aeneas Aeneid ancient dream ancient world Anxiety or wish-fulfilment appear Appian Apuleius argued Aristides Artemidorus Asclepius believe Caesar Calpurnia character Cicero cultural imagination cultural memory death defined describes diflerent Dionysius of Halicarnassus Divinatione divine dreams Divine message dreams Divus dream book dream interpreters dream reports dreamer dreams of unknown epic evidence example explain figs figure find first Freud ghost gods Greek Harris Herodotus historical literature Homer idea imaginative literature important include dreams incubation oracles incubatory inscriptions Iosephus Kragelund Latin Leuci Leucippe and Clitophon Literal prophecy dreams literary Livy Lucian Lying message dreams Lying symbolic dreams Metamorphoses notes ofthe omens particular Pausanias Perpetua Plutarch poem Polybius Propertius prophetic readers recorded refer to dreams reflect relating religion Renberg ritual Roman period sacrifice second century Semi-divine message dreams significant dreams Silius Italicus sleep soul specific story Suetonius suggests tell texts unknown origin Valerius Maximus wish-fulfilment dreams