A Brief History of Dream Interpretation: The Ancient Near-East

The Egyptians looked to religious leaders for dream interpretation, believing that they encased prophetic imagery. The images of dreams, to ancient Egyptians, were messages from the Gods as a warning for oncoming disaster or good fortune. It is commonly held that the Egyptians were the first civilization to attempt dream analysis as a published book has been recovered that described their symbolic beliefs and other practices. This finding is the earliest of its kind in human record. The process of dream incubation originated in the Egyptian culture. In its practice, a person experiencing troubles that sought aid from the Gods would sleep in a sacred temple. The dreams that they experienced during this religious practice were then interpreted by a priest, then known as a Master of the Secret Things. Priests or leaders of other religions typical of the area during this era were similarly consulted for dream interpretation. In particular, Joseph and Daniel are referenced in the Bible to have used dream analysis as a means of interpreting the word of God. Numerous hieroglyphic portrayals have also been found that depict dreams and their relative interpretations.

Starting around the 8th Century B.C.E., the ancient Greeks began to see dreaming as a therapeutic measure with the potential to combat disease. The sick were kept inside religious temples where shrines were kept devoted to the “gods of the body.” Here Greeks were thought to be cured after performing religious rites and experiencing divinely influenced dreams, a manifestation of Egyptian dream incubation. Ailing Greeks would stay at the temple until they experienced the ‘right’ dream, sometimes taking numerous weeks. The best known temple for this dream pilgrimage was the Aesculapius at Epidaurus. As in Egypt, the Greeks saw the imagery behind dreams as a type of divine message with the power to foretell the future. They similarly believed that only religious priests could aid interpretation. The first of these interpreters are speculated to be merely legend, as no written account of their existence can be accounted for. Of these legendary interpreters is a man named Amphuctyon, who was believed to be the grandson of Prometheus. It has been heard that the last king of Lydia, King Croesus, even sought the aid of Amphuctyon. In the 5th century B.C.E., the Greek philosopher Heraclitus began to take the first modern approach to dream interpretation. He suggested that the dream world a person experienced was created in their individual mind. He was the first philosopher to take this route, as all other philosophers used external factors, predominately the Gods, to explain the phenomenon. Plato symbolized the common philosophical belief that dreams held a tremendous capability to affect an individual’s personality. In a dialogue between him and Socrates, the Phaedo, Plato admits that he was led to study music and the arts because he had been told to do so in a dream. Aristotle later abolished the prophetic capacity of dreams by regaling that such cases were mere coincidence. He wrote that the only strength in the most prestigious dream interpreters was their ability to draw resemblances. His personal belief was that dreams were a recollection of the day’s events.

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