Literary dream · Death & the departed
A lying dream in the likeness of Nestor
Troy (setting) · c. 8th century BCE
It sought Agamemnon son of Atreus and found him in his tent, wrapped in a profound slumber. It hovered over his head in the likeness of Nestor
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- Source
- The Iliad (trans. Samuel Butler) — Homer; trans. Samuel Butler, 1898 (translation). Book II
- Record type
- Literary dream
- Place
- Troy (setting) · Ancient Greek
- Date
- c. 8th century BCE
- Uncertainty
- High — In Homer, Zeus sends a personified Dream to deceive the king.
- Imagery
- A stranger · Ruler · War
- Feelings
- Awe
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Dreams of the dead returning are widely reported after bereavement. Ellis noted how such dreams often move, over years, from disbelief to quiet acceptance; many people describe them as comforting rather than frightening.
Ellis (1911), ch. VIII
Mythological
In Homer, dreams pass through gates of horn and ivory; across many cultures the dead were believed to visit the living in sleep, and dreams were a place where the two could meet.
Odyssey XIX
Chinese traditions
Chinese poets wrote dreams of the departed as acts of remembrance: Su Shi’s “Ten years, living and dead” and Du Fu’s “My old friend entered my dream” are read to this day as elegies.
Su Shi (1075); Du Fu (759)
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.
Dreams that share its images
- Two Alexanders in battle, crowned with corn Cappadocia, Anatolia · 321 BCE
- A young man with wings over Asia and Europe Land of the Massagetae (Central Asia) · 530 BCE (as told)
- Ask what I shall give thee Gibeon · undated narrative
- I no longer dream of the Duke of Zhou State of Lu, China · c. 5th century BCE
- My son would be killed by an iron spear Sardis, Lydia · c. 550 BCE (as told)
- The third day hence to fertile Phthia Athens, Greece · 399 BCE