Dream interpretation

Dream interpretation involves giving meaning to dreams. Many early societies, including those in Egypt and Greece, viewed dreams as supernatural messages or divine interventions that required interpretation by spiritually gifted individuals. Today, different psychological and neurobiological schools propose theories about what dreams mean and why they occur. Evidence from ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia shows dream interpretation existed as early as 3100 BCE.

Early civilizations

Dreams were crucial for divination, and Mesopotamian kings paid close attention to them. For instance, Gudea, king of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash (reigned around 2144–2124 BCE), rebuilt the temple of Ningirsu after a dream instructed him to do so. In the dream, a huge, powerful figure—part god, part bird, part storm, with lions beside him—told Gudea to build a temple, though Gudea didn’t fully grasp the message. Ningirsu also promised gentle rain and good weather for the project, reflecting the belief that dreams were important messages received when the mind was quiet and open during sleep.

The Epic of Gilgamesh includes many accounts of prophetic dreams. Gilgamesh himself has two dreams foretelling Enkidu’s arrival. In one, he sees an axe fall from the sky; people gather in admiration, and Gilgamesh throws the axe before his mother Ninsun, then embraces it like a wife.

Ninsun interprets this to mean a powerful person will soon appear, that Gilgamesh will struggle with him but not overpower him, and that they will become close friends and achieve great things. She concludes, “That you embraced him like a wife means he will never forsake you. Thus your dream is solved.” Later, Enkidu dreams about their encounter with the giant Humbaba. Dreams were also seen as a way to glimpse other worlds; it was thought that the soul, or part of it, left the sleeping body and actually visited the places and people seen in the dream.

In Tablet VII, Enkidu tells Gilgamesh of a dream where the gods Anu, Enlil, and Shamash condemn him to death, and another where he visits the Underworld. Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883–859 BCE) built a temple to Mamu, possibly the god of dreams, at Imgur-Enlil near Kalhu. Later, Ashurbanipal (reigned 668–circa 627 BCE) had a dream during a desperate military situation in which his divine patron, the goddess Ishtar, appeared and promised to lead him to victory. Babylonians and Assyrians divided dreams into “good” ones sent by gods and “bad” ones sent by demons.

A surviving collection of dream omens called Iškar Zaqīqu records various dream scenarios and their predicted outcomes, apparently based on past cases. Some list different possible results for similar dreams. Scenarios include daily work, journeys, family matters, sex acts, and encounters with people, animals, and deities. In ancient Egypt, priests acted as dream interpreters, and hieroglyphics depicting dreams and their interpretations survive.

Classical Antiquity

Dreams have been considered important throughout history by most cultures. The ancient Greeks built temples called Asclepieions, where sick people were sent to be cured through divine grace by incubating dreams within the temple. Dreams were also seen as prophetic or significant omens. Artemidorus of Daldis, writing in the 2nd century AD, produced a comprehensive text, Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams).

Though he believed dreams could predict the future, he anticipated many modern approaches. He thought dream images could involve puns and be understood by decoding the image into its component words. For example, Alexander, while warring against the Tyrians, dreamed a satyr danced on his shield.

Middle Ages

Artemidorus reports this was interpreted as “satyr = sa tyros” (“Tyre will be thine”), predicting Alexander’s victory. Freud later acknowledged this example when proposing that dreams be interpreted like a rebus. In medieval Islamic psychology, certain hadiths indicate dreams consist of three parts, and early Muslim scholars recognized three kinds: false, pathogenic, and true. Ibn Sirin (654–728) was renowned for his Ta'bir al-Ru'ya and Muntakhab al-Kalam fi Tabir al-Ahlam, a book on dreams divided into 25 sections, from etiquette to interpreting recitations of specific Qur'anic Surahs in dreams.

He wrote that laypeople should seek guidance from an alim (Muslim scholar) who could interpret dreams with proper cultural context. Al-Kindi (Alkindus) (801–873) also wrote a treatise on dream interpretation, On Sleep and Dreams. In consciousness studies, Al-Farabi (872–951) wrote On the Cause of Dreams, appearing as chapter 24 of his Book of Opinions of the people of the Ideal City. This treatise was the first to distinguish between dream interpretation and the nature of dreams themselves.