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J. Donald Hughes
Professor of History
University of Denver
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Anyone with an interest in dream interpretation who reads
earlier literature soon discovers a remarkable contrast between the
careful attention given to dreams in past centuries and the
relatively casual attitude of most modern writers, with the exception
of those who are informed by the insights of psychoanalysis and its
allied endeavors. Almost no important work of ancient literature
lacks reference to dreams, their interpretation, and their influence
on human attitudes and actions.
PRIMAL SOCIETIES
Although early human beings had several different ideas
concerning what dreams are, they seem always to have invested dreams
with great significance. That the soul left the body during sleep
and actually experienced the dream events elsewhere, possibly in a
supernatural world, was a widespread belief. In virtually every
primal society investigated by anthropologists, the people treated
dreams as an especially important way of receiving messages from the
world of power and spirit, from the gods and other powerful beings.
In these groups, most probably akin in ways of life and world views
to humans who lived in the palaeolithic and neolithic periods, dream
interpretation was the responsibility of those with experience in
such things: tribal elders, matriarchs and patriarchs, priests and
shamans. Shamans gave especially valued advice, since they were
believed to be able to enter the world of dreams at will through
weapons, to remind themselves that their dreams had given them power
in hunting, warfare, or healing. For the rest of their lives, they
would be sought out and relied upon, and might have membership in
special societies of those who had experienced dreams with similar
images. The power to become a shaman was commonly first granted in a
dream that included the image of transformation into an animal or a
flight or other journey of the soul.3
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2. John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks (Lincoln, Neb.: University
of Nebraska Press, 1961), pp. 166-18O.
3. Jackson Steward Lincoln, The Dream in Primitive Cultures (New
York: Cressett Press, 1935. Reprint: Johnson Reprint
Corporation, 197O), pp. 68-73.
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Third Milennium B.C. Near the beginning of the epic its semi-divine
hero, Gilgamesh, has two cryptic dreams that he takes to his mother,
Ninsun, "one of the wise gods," for interpretation: "Mother, last
night I had a dream. I was full of joy, the young heroes were round
me and I walked though the night under the stars of the firmament and
one, a meteor of the stuff of Anu [the sky god], fell down from
heaven. I tried to lift it but it proved too heavy. All the people
of [the city of] Uruk came round to see it, the common people jostled
and the nobles thronged to kiss its feet; and to me its attraction
was like the love of woman. They helped me, I braced my forehead and
I raised it with thongs and brought it to you, and you yourself
pronounced it my brother."7 The second dream was very similar, but
the central image was a strange-shaped axe. Ninsun, "who is gifted
with great wisdom," interpreted both dreams in the same way:
Gilgamesh was about to meet his friend and comrade, the recently
captured wild man of great strength, Enkidu. Here the interpretation
is straightforward; the qualities of the dream images are strength
and attraction, which are the qualities that Enkidu will have for
Gilgamesh. Here also the common belief that dreams foretell coming
events is evident. Gilgamesh is a historian's gold mine of dreams of
different types. By the way, in Gilgamesh, as in most Mesopotamian
literature, the successful dream interpreters are always women.
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7. The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by N. K. Sandars
(Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1964), p. 64.
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called either sha'il(t)u or baru, who had the ability to tell the
meaning of dreams and to take actions to avert their possible evil
consequences. The first name means "he or she who asks questions [of
the gods]." The second name probably derives from a verb (Sumerian
bur, Akkadian pasharu, Babylonian baru) meaning "to unfold,
explicate, set at ease," or in another sense, "to dissolve, dispel,
destroy consequences."8 The latter was necessary because in
Mesopotamia, a number of gods were associated with dreams, and not
all were kindly. They included the Sumerian Mamu ("God Dream"),
benevolent offspring of the sun god Utu, the Babylonian Makhir,
favorable goddess of dreams, and the Akkadian Zaqu or Zaqiqu, a kind
of nocturnal demon who could produce nightmares. Anum, the Akkadian
sky god, was called "He who dispels [the consequences of evil]
dreams."9 The Mesopotamian societies seem to have held that one who
has had an evil dream is in need of ritual cleansing. The priest
could transfer the consequences of an evil dream to a lump of clay,
and then dissolve it in water. Or a man who had seen a bad dream and
was depressed could tell it to a reed, then burn it and blow on the
fire himself in order to feel relieved.1O But it would be incorrect
to think that ancient dream analysts always operated on a
literalistic, physical level. When they "translated" the dream,
revealing its symbolic message, the enigma of the dream disappeared,
enabling the dreamer to find release through whatever prayer or other
action the interpreter might prescribe, or which might be suggested
by the purported meaning of the dream itself.
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8. Oppenheim, "Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East,"
p. 217; and A. H. Sayce, "Dreams and Sleep: Babylonian," in
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 13 vols., edited by James
Hastings (New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1962), vol. 4, p.
33.
9. Oppenheim, op. cit., p. 218.
1O. Ibid., p. 3O4.
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Dreambooks
Dreambooks, containing lists of images that might be seen in
dreams with their supposed meanings, were used both in Mesopotamia
and Egypt. It is impossible to say where they appeared first, but in
both places it was probably around 2OOO B.C. or somewhat earlier.
Many clay tablets of this type have been found in Mesopotamia in more
or less fragmentary form, notably a series found in the great library
of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal (668-627 B.C.), but dating from the
second and first milennia B.C. The dream images mentioned cover a
wide variety of topics; apparently an attempt was made to mention
every possible variation that might be seen in a dream. For example,
to be used against bad dreams: "If a man had a wrong dream he must,
in order that its evil (consequences) may not affect him, say to
himself (in the morning) before he sets his foot upon the floor: 'The
dream I have had is good, good, verily good before Sin and Shamash!'
Thus he shall say. (in this way) he makes a good egirru [omen] for
himself, and the evil of his dream will not come near him."12
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11. Ibid., pp. 265-266.
12. Ibid., p. 3OO.
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the Coming Forth by Day. Not a book in the usual sense of the word,
it is a variable collection of chapters or spells taken from a
repertoire of just under 2OO known spells which date from the long
period, 25OO-8OO B.C. Placed in the coffin along with the mummy as a
guide to the deceased in the next world, it also had daily uses in
the temples. Some of its chapters, such as those describing the
passage through corridors and doors like those in a temple, can be
read as instructions for parts of the incubation ritual. Others
contain dream images such as transformations into the forms of
animals, plants, or gods and goddesses. Still others provide prayers
for the banishment of nightmare figures. The soul is often depicted
as the Ba, a human-headed bird that has the power to travel between
the world of ordinary experience and the netherworld, very much like
the ego figure in dreams.15a
ORIENTAL SOCIETIES
It is impossible in a work of this length to give the extended
consideration demanded by the immensely varied and important dream
interpretation theories and practices of China, Japan, India, and the
other Asiatic cultures. Oriental literature and art are rich in
dream material. It was Chuang Tzu (369-286 B.C.), a Taoist sage, who
wrote the famous story of his paradoxical dream; he dreamed he was a
butterfly, and upon awakening, did not know whether he was a man who
had dreamed of being a butterfly, or was then a butterfly dreaming he
was a man. In southern China there were Taoist temples to which
people went in order to sleep and receive important and helpful
The Vedas, sacred books of India, contain the idea that in sleep
the soul leaves the body and creates scenes and adventures for
itself. There is a warning against awakening a sleeper too suddenly,
for fear the soul will not be able to get back into the body in time.
But the Brahmin scholar, Sankara Acharya (early 19OO's), disagreed,
saying that although they are capable of foretelling the future,
dreams themselves are mere illusions and do not contain a single
particle of reality. Of course, Hinduism and many Buddhist sects
teach that the waking world is also illusion. Elsewhere the idea is
set forth that dreams occur in the state halfway between sleep and
waking. Early Indian medical texts speak of dreams as symptoms in
advance of various illnesses, or of death. The yogis taught that one
should use the dream state as a means of improvement of the moral and
spiritual life. What could be more reasonable, since the waking
state is also, in a higher sense, a dream?15b
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15a. Ralph L. Woods, The World of Dreams (New York: Random House,
1947), pp. 41-96.
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He saw one in which he and his brothers were binding sheaves, and his
brothers' sheaves bowed down to his sheaf. Later he dreamed that the
sun, moon, and eleven stars (the number of his brothers) bowed down
to him.16 While the meaning of these dreams was perfectly
transparent to his brothers, and presumably to Joseph himself, they
were nonetheless symbolic dreams. Joseph became one of the most
famous dream interpreters in the Bible, gaining his freedom from
prison in Egypt by explaining correctly the meanings of the dreams of
Pharaoh' chief butler and baker. The butler recommended him to
Pharaoh, who had seen two dreams he could not understand. The first
was of seven fat cows coming out of the Nile, and seven thin cows
coming up after them and devouring them. The second was very
similar, but the images were ears of grain.17 It is interesting to
note how often in ancient literature symbolic dreams occur in pairs.
Joseph's interpretation, that seven years of plenty will be followed
by seven of famine, closely follows the dream images, but it is
interesting to note that he assigned the interpretation of dreams to
God, not himself: "Do not interpretations belong to God?"18 Daniel,
the other noted dream interpreter in the Hebrew Bible, also
attributed his interpretations to God, and showed himself capable of
a unique feat; he supplied King Nebuchadnezzar not only with an
interpretation, but with the very dream the king himself had
forgotten!19
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16. Genesis 37:5-11.
17. Genesis 4O:5-41:36.
18. Genesis 4O:8.
19. Daniel 2.
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tumbling into camp and upsetting a tent. His comrade immediately saw
the meaning: "This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of
Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand God has given Midian and all
the host." Of course, it is evident from the context that God had
put this interpretation into the Midianite's mouth.2O
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2O. Judges 7:13-14.
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The Biblical prophets had great visions which sound very much
like dreams, but it is often impossible to tell whether they were
seen when the prophet was asleep, or in a waking vision. Zechariah
explicitly says that he saw his vision of the four horses "in the
night," a formula that indicates a dream.21 The two kinds of
experience are not strictly differentiated. Sometimes a vision is
highly symbolic and dreamlike, as for example Ezekiel's of the wheels
and the four creatures, which strangely enough never received an
interpretation, at least not in the Bible.22 Jeremiah had visions
resembling symbolic dreams, with a punning interpretation supplied by
an accompanying voice: "'Jeremiah, what do you see?' And I said, 'I
see a rod of almond (Hebrew shaqed).' Then the Lord said to me, 'You
have seen well, for I am watching (Hebrew shoqed) over my word to
perform it.'"23
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21. Zechariah 1:8. The dream, though symbolic, supplied its own
interpretation.
22. Ezekiel 1.
23. Jeremiah 1:11-12.
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