Among the many gifts of Homer’s two epic poems are vital insights into the nature and meaning of dreams, insights that are still relevant today. Story Odysseus it was before “Iliad”, whose dream references provide useful background for the tale that follows.
Only in the second book “Iliad”.the dream sent by God plays an important role. However, in this case, the dream is a cruel one deception Zeus sent to Greece leader Agamemnon encouraged him to launch an attack that he was bound to lose. This happened in “Iliad”.which is one of the most influential works of all time, shows that people of this time knew the danger of easily believing in pleasure. fantasies of dreams
Dreaming women
Reported in dreams Odysseus they all come from women and they all have different measurements. The first comes to Queen Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, when she learns that her son Telemachus has secretly left home in search of his long-lost father. That night, the goddess Athena sends Penelope a dream in the trusty form of her sister to deliver a message of comfort and reassurance. When Penelope wakes up, she feels noticeably better, “her spirit is warmed now that a lucid dream has come to her in the darkest night.” This is a slightly delusional dream in which an external agent deliberately shapes a familiar dream image to elicit a specific emotional response from the dreamer. The result is clear to the dreamer, but the story also gives the audience a highly critical awareness of the subtle dynamics of external (divine) influences on make a Wish process
Athena is also the dream of the future behind the link. Using the form of Nausicaa’s best friend, she sends a dream to the young Princess that prompts the princess to go to the river to wash her best dress in preparation for her wedding day. When Nausicaa wakes up “still seduced by her dream,” she goes to the river with her laundry, where she suddenly encounters a wild, noble, naked man—Odysseus himself. The great warrior is lost and alone, and so Athena helpfully sends a dream that puts the king’s daughter in a romantic mood and guides her there, where she alone will find Odysseus and personally bring him back to the safety of the royal palace.
It is a dream that, in its original purpose, Athena intended to satisfy the needs of Odysseus, not Nausicaa. Athena uses Nausicaa as a means to enable Odysseus to continue his journey home. And yet the dream does not harm or mislead the dreamer. It may even help him encourage a greater degree of self-awareness of his hidden romantic desires. The goddess, the warrior, and the princess all benefit from this dream in different ways.
Odyssey error
The most dramatic dream scene in Odysseus ends when Odysseus finally returns home after 20 years, but still does not reveal himself to his wife Penelope. Dressed as a beggar, he meets with Penelope to learn about the barbaric men, the “suitors” (108 of them) who have invaded his palace and apparently crushed their affections on the widowed Penelope. In this meeting, the princess shares a dream with a dervish. “Listen carefully,” he says. In the dream, he is keeping his 20 geese – “I like to watch them all” – when suddenly a mountain eagle swoops down, kills all the geese and flies away again. Then a voice in the dream says that the geese are suitors and Odysseus the eagle to come back and kill them all.
When Penelope ends, the beggar / Odysseus immediately replies: “Dear woman, spin it what you will, your dream can only mean one thing”: death to the suitors. But Penelope says, “Dreams are hard to open, my friend,” and she makes a wonderful speech about the two dream-gates, one of ivory for false dreams, and one of polished horn for dreams “of truth, to the dreamer who sees them.”
The meaning of Penelope’s dream and her speech between the two gates depends on what we think is going on between these two people. If we accept that Odysseus has successfully made his disguise personality of Penelope, then we are likely to accept her interpretation, marvel at her astonishing resistance, and take the killing of the suitors as confirmation of her reading of the dream.
However, if we remember that Penelope proved herself to be the most intelligent and intelligent of all women, another possibility arises. She does to know who the beggar really is and he puts his dream to him as a riddle. 20 geese in his dream, in this sense, does not represent 108 suitors, but 20 people. year Odysseus left her and his family to fight in someone else’s war. He killed those 20 years of their life together – does she see it? Does she see him?
Unfortunately, no. He sees what he wants to see, which I call the Odyssean error of dream interpretation. He presents a self-inflicted analysis of his dream that ignores his living reality and promotes his selfish desires. Penelope’s two-door speech, in this reading, is a subtle but unmistakable way that she has failed her test. Immediately after this, he announces a bow and ax contest. If he understood his dream correctly, he could achieve it; now, alas, he must prove himself in another, far more dangerous way.
Not all stories Odysseus these include dream scenes. But oneiric wisdom in these passages from Homer’s ancient epics continue to shape and inspire our thinking about dreams today.
