A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our EraThorndike, Lynn
History
A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era
Thorndike, Lynn
Magic -- History; Science -- History
Both Jews and Greeks at the beginning of the Christian era were much
given to the interpretation of dreams. There were “established and
frequented dreaming places” at the shrines of Asclepius at Epidaurus,
Amphiaraus at Oropus, Amphilochus at Mallos, Sarpedon in the Troad,
Trophonius at Lebedea, Mopsus in Cilicia, Hermonia in Macedon, and
Pasiphaë in Laconia. We hear of dream-books by Artemon, Antiphon,
Strato, Philochoros, Epicharmus, Serapion, Cratippus, Dionysius
of Rhodes, and Hermippus of Beirut. But the chief work upon the
interpretation of dreams which has reached us from the time of the
Roman Empire is that of Artemidorus, who was born at Ephesus and lived
in Lydia in the time of the Antonines. He of course wrote in Greek and,
despite the superstitious character of his work, in a pure and refined
Attic style. The Ὀνειροκριτικά has also been translated into Latin,
French, and Italian.[911] It is a compilation in five books gathered
from previous literature on the subject and by the author personally
in travel in Greece, Italy, and elsewhere. The first thirteen chapters
of the fourth book, which Artemidorus opens with a general instruction
to his son, deal with such preliminary and general considerations as
the different types of dreams and more especially those divinely sent,
the significance of times, the personal qualifications requisite in the
interpreter, and certain rules of interpretation such as that native
customs are good signs and foreign ways bad signs in dreams. But the
great bulk of the work consists of specific interpretation arranged
either under topical headings such as “Concerning Nativity,” or listed
as single dreams.
[Sidenote: Astrampsychos and Nicephorus.]
In the edition of 1603[912] the work of Artemidorus is followed by
much briefer metrical treatises on the same subject by Astrampsychos
and Nicephorus.[913] These poems, if they may be so called, devote a
line of interpretation to each of the things seen in dreams, and these
verses are arranged in alphabetical order. This was to be the method
of arrangement adopted in the medieval dream-books ascribed to the
prophet Daniel. Astrampsychos is first named by Diogenes Laertius[914]
in the early third century. He was supposed to have been one of the
Persian Magi, and other occult treatises are ascribed to him, including
astrological writings, a book of oracles addressed to Ptolemy, and love
charms in a papyrus in the British Museum.[915]
[Sidenote: Achmet translated by Leo Tuscus.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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