Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

chapter 6Theoretical and empirical elements in Aristotle’streatment of sleep, dreams and divination in sleep1 pre-aristotelian views on sleep and dreams‘Anyone who has a correct understanding of the signs that occur in sleep,will discover that they have great significance for everything.’ 1 This is theopening sentence of the fourth book of the Hippocratic work On Regimen,a treatise dating probably from the first half of the fourth century bce anddealing with the interpretation of dreams from a medical point of view,that is, as signs pointing to the (future) state of the body of the dreamer. 2The passage reflects the general opinion in ancient Greece that dreams areof great importance as ‘signs’ (sēmeia) or ‘indications’ (tekmēria), not onlyof the physical constitution of the dreamer and of imminent diseases ormental disturbances befalling him/her, but also of divine intentions, ofthings that may happen in the future, things hidden to normal humanunderstanding. 3 Dreams played an important part in Greek divinationand religion, especially in the healing cult of Asclepius, because they werebelieved to contain important therapeutic indications or even to bringabout healing themselves. 4 The belief in the divine origin of dreams andin their prophetic power was widespread, even among intellectuals. Asa result, dreams were mostly approached with caution because of theirambiguous nature. The Greeks realised that dreams, while often presentingmany similarities with daytime experiences, may at the same time be bizarreor monstrous. This ambiguity gave rise to questions such as: is what appearsto us in the dream real or not, and, if it is real, in what sense? What kind1 , On Regimen 4.86 (6.640 L.).2 For a full bibliography of discussions of this work see van der Eijk (2004a).3 For a bibliography on Greek views on dreams see van der Eijk (1994) 106–32, to which should be addedByl (1998); Hubert (1999); Holowchak (1996) and (2001); Jori (1994); Liatsi (2002); Oberhelman(1993); Pigeaud (1995); Repici (2003); Sharples (2001). For general surveys of Greek thought ondreams see van Lieshout (1980) and Guidorizzi (1988); for discussions of early and classical Greekthought on sleep see Calabi (1984), Marelli (1979–80) and (1983), Wöhrle (1995) and Byl (1998).4 See Edelstein and Edelstein (1945, reissued in 1998).169