Artemidorus - The Interpretation of Dreams

The Interpretation of Dreams

Artemidorus of Daldis in western Asia Minor (late second century early third century ad ; exact dates unknown) was a professional dream-interpreter who wrote a comprehensive theoretical and practical guide to the interpretation of dreams, the Oneirocritica, in five Books composed at intervals, probably between c. ad 180 and 210. Dream-books and treatises on interpretation had a long history from at least the fifth century bc , and Artemidorus was well versed in the tradition, but his Oneirocritica has unique importance and interest as the only such book to have survived complete from Graeco-Roman antiquity, and its direct or indirect influence in the succeeding centuries, up to and including Freud, has been immense. Insisting on direct experience rather than textbook learning, Artemidorus travelled widely through Asia Minor, the Aegean islands, Greece, and Italy to collect his material. Although evidently a member of the civic elite in both Daldis and the provincial capital Ephesus, his main interest, and we presume his main professional practice, concerned the dreams, and the hopes or anxieties, of ordinary people lower down the social order. Books 4 and 5 of the Oneirocritica are addressed to his son, who was making his way as a trainee dream-interpreter. They form a sort of beginners manual, with a review of the classification of dreams and the general principles of interpretation, a wealth of indicative practical examples, and advice on some of the tricks of the trade.

Martin Hammond was born in 1944 and educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. He has taught at St Pauls School, Harrow School, and Eton College, where he was Head of Classics from 1974 to 1980, and Master in College from 1980 to 1984. He was Headmaster of the City of London School from 1984 to 1990, and of Tonbridge School from 1990 to his retirement in 2005. He has translated the Iliad (Penguin, 1987), the Odyssey (Duckworth, 2000; Bloomsbury, 2014), the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (Penguin, 2006), and for Oxford Worlds Classics Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War (2009), Arrian: Alexander the Great: The Anabasis and the Indica (2013), and Josephus: The Jewish War (2017).

Peter Thonemann was born in 1978 and educated at Mill Hill School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Since 2007 he has been Forrest-Derow Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Wadham College, Oxford. His books include The Birth of Classical Europe (with Simon Price, 2010), The Maeander Valley (2011), The Hellenistic World: Using Coins as Sources (2015), and The Hellenistic Age: A Very Short Introduction (2018). He writes regularly on all aspects of Greek and Roman antiquity for the Times Literary Supplement and the Wall Street Journal.