Can Dreams Change History?

<p><img src="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/579ec161-7490-453e-8044-f115581b953e_1300x780.png"></p><p>Dear Classical Wisdom Member,</p><p>It’s the absolute worst feeling in the world… Your stomach sinks and your mind reels as one by one your teeth crumble and fall out… </p><p>Panic rises as each bloody tooth falls into your hand.</p><p>You wake up, perhaps with a gasp, as you reach into your mouth… just to see if it was real… or all just a dream.</p><p>I’m not sure about you, but this is a recurring nightmare of mine, especially whenever I have a big change or something stressful happening. I had thought that there was something deeply symbolic about this nightmare, an echo of my younger self making sense of one of the first and most tangible physical changes we undergo. </p><p>Surely this experience was embedded in my subconscious, re-emerging whenever a new shift in life occurred…a repetition of loss and uncertainty.</p><p>But then I came across an explanation that was far less symbolic… </p><p>This common dental dream, it turns out, may simply be the result of grinding one’s teeth while asleep. Bruxism, a common symptom of stress, seeps into our dreams and manifests as the nightmarish scenario described above.</p><p><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/can-dreams-change-history?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p><p>Whether symbolic or scientific in origin, dreams can have an immense impact on our lives. We can wake up elated from flying or fearful from some unsettling situation, played out in our minds. Our internal nocturnal visions can illuminate a deep worry or concern, or hint at an unrealised desire or aspiration.</p><p>Sometimes, however, dreams do more than reveal our fears or anxieties.</p><p>Sometimes they change the course of a life.</p><p>And occasionally, they change the course of history itself.</p><p>This was certainly the case in the ancient world, where dreams were taken very seriously by philosophers, emperors, priests and common people alike.</p><p>The history of medicine would not be where it is today were it for Galen’s father, Nicon, who dreamed that the god Asclepius instructed him to have his son study medicine. Galen abandoned his previous training in philosophy and became one of the most influential physicians in history, whose writings dominated medicine for more than a millennium. </p><p><em>(His work now accounts for a remarkable 10% of surviving ancient Greek materials, making him the single most prolific author from the ancient world!)</em></p><p>Nor were such poignant dreams confined to ordinary citizens.</p><p>The emperor Hadrian reportedly paid close attention to dreams throughout his life. Ancient sources claim that he experienced prophetic visions, foresaw important events, and even discovered a remedy for a serious illness through a dream.</p><p>One of the most dramatic dream narratives in all of ancient history, however, concerns the Persian king Xerxes. According to Herodotus, Xerxes initially decided against invading Greece. Then a mysterious supernatural figure repeatedly appeared in his dreams, threatening him if he abandoned the campaign. Even when his advisor Artabanus slept in Xerxes’ bed to test the vision, he experienced the same terrifying dream.</p><p>The result was an invasion that led to Thermopylae, Salamis, and some of the most consequential events of the ancient world…</p><p>Of course, these are only a few examples. Philip II, Socrates, Scipio, Cicero, Constantine, and many others all attributed profound significance to dreams.</p><p>Even sensible Aristotle, who viewed them as natural, biological and psychological phenomena (rather than divine messages), devoted an entire treatise to the subject in <em>On Dreams (De Insomniis).</em></p><p>Suffice to say, dreams are important.</p><p><strong>But what did dreams really mean to the ancients? How were they to be understood?</strong></p><p><strong>More intriguingly still, what happened when Greek thinkers began trying to interpret dreams systematically?</strong></p><p>As today’s article reveals, their attempts to decipher symbols, riddles, and hidden meanings may have helped lay the foundations for interpretation itself.</p><p><strong>Classical Wisdom Members:</strong> Please enjoy today’s special guest article, an in-depth exploration of dreams, symbolism, and the origins of Greek hermeneutics. The piece is an extract from the newly released book <em><a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691263557/the-ancient-interpretation-of-dreams">The Ancient Interpretation of Dreams</a></em><a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691263557/the-ancient-interpretation-of-dreams">,</a> generously provided by Mirjam E. Kotwick, Associate Professor of Classics at Princeton University.</p><p><em>If you aren’t a member yet, make today the day you unlock the wisdom of the ancient world. Subscribe below and enjoy our exclusive members-only article:</em></p><p><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p>All the best,<br>Anya Leonard</p><p>Founder and Director</p><p>Classical Wisdom</p><h1><em>The Ancient Interpretation of Dreams</em>: Early Greek Hermeneutics and Its Sources </h1><p><em>An extract, by Mirjam E. Kotwick</em></p><p>All ancient Greek thinkers who seriously inquired into what dreams are and where they come from assumed that they are principally significant of something. This holds, crucially, regardless of whether they understood dreams as messages sent by the gods or as originating from our body or mind.</p><p>Moreover, we find across the different explanations of dreams the consistent idea that dreams often mean something other than what they literally say—in other words, that they speak indirectly, figuratively, or in metaphors. Many ancient authors were fascinated with this formal aspect of dreams and the hermeneutic questions dreams raise. </p><p>Understanding and interpreting such dreams then often turned into understanding and interpreting figurative language more generally.</p><p>Many of the texts that discuss dreams and their interpretation, so I will argue, reflect on the process of interpretation and on basic aspects of figurative, indirect language. Indeed, as I will argue further, dream interpretation is the place where ancient Greek hermeneutic thought develops, often before it does elsewhere.</p><h1>Dreams in Ancient Greek Texts</h1><p>In ancient Greek texts, dreams are for the most part presented as significant, but not all dreams convey their message in an indirect, figurative format. </p> <p> <a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/can-dreams-change-history"> Read more </a> </p> <p><a href="https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/can-dreams-change-history" target="_blank">- Enlace a artículo -</a></p> <p>Más info en https://ift.tt/OIxV5q0 / Tfno. & WA 607725547 Centro MENADEL (Frasco Martín) Psicología Clínica y Tradicional en Mijas. #Menadel #Psicología #Clínica #Tradicional #MijasPueblo</p> <p>*No suscribimos necesariamente las opiniones o artículos aquí compartidos. No todo es lo que parece.</p>