Dreaming In Ancient Greece

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Recommended: Revision of the theory of dreams

People of all the ages and from all around the world wonder about the mysterious world of Dreaming. They are curious whether their dreams hide a meaning or whether they operate as prophesies for the future. People want to know the reason of dreaming. While many theories exist to explain all these questions, no one yet fully understands their purpose, let alone how to interpret their meaning. The origins of the first researches trace back to the Ancient Greece where philosophers tried to explain their function and these researches continue until nowadays. The aim of this paper is to record all these efforts in a logical order First of all, in order to develop the thesis of this paper, it is necessary to mention the definition of the word …show more content…

Mesopotamians, Greeks, Egyptians were some of the earliest civilizations that made use of dream interpretation. Significant was the findings of the Mesopotamians, whose documents date back to 3100BC. Mesopotamians are said to be the firsts to record about dreaming. Some of the techniques used by ancient Mesopotamians Dream Interpreters are still in use today and reflect the ideas of modern dream interpretation. Another important civilization, as far as the dream analysis of is concerned, is the Ancient Greece. Greeks focused on the appearance of their gods in their dreams. Dreams thought to be divine instructions sent from gods and they were considered to be prophetic messages about the future. A considerably important philosopher, Aristotle, during the 4th century BC started to give a closer look at dreams. First of all, he placed an extreme amount on emphasis on the importance of the use of the reason and how its use can influence a person`s welfare and personality. Contrary to the beliefs of his generation, Aristotle managed to shift away the religious messages of dreams. He believed that the dreams were not sent from the gods but they were a result of the imagination. He thought that the dreams were prolongations of the reality. During sleep, this series of images and the emotions can create a false reality. Anyone can perceive the dream as reality as long as he is not aware of his sleeping state, in which the reason ceases. Once he can be able to judge his state and differentiate the dream from reality, the dream becomes just a

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