Anecdote collection · People & kin
The mother who was the earth
Gades (Cádiz), Spain · 68 BCE
In the stillness of the night following, he dreamt that he lay with his own mother; but his confusion was relieved, and his hopes were raised to the highest pitch, by the interpreters of his dream, who expounded it as an omen that he should possess universal empire
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- Source
- The Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Thomson trans., rev. Forester) — Suetonius; trans. Alexander Thomson, rev. T. Forester, c. 121 / 1796 (trans.). Julius Caesar, ch. VII
- Record type
- Anecdote collection
- Place
- Gades (Cádiz), Spain · Roman
- Date
- 68 BCE
- Uncertainty
- High — From Suetonius’ Lives of the Twelve Caesars (A. Thomson trans., rev. T. Forester); an omen-dream reported by a Roman biographer.
- Imagery
- Mother · Ruler
- Feelings
- Confusion · Relief
Another way to look at this dream
Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.
Mother
Was this your own mother as you know her, or someone in her place? What did she do or say?
Jung · The mother archetype
Jung first reads a dreamed mother on the “objective level” — your real mother and your relationship. Only then on the “subjective level”: the mother archetype, which he described as both nourishing and devouring.
C. G. Jung, “Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype”, Collected Works 9i
Early dream research & psychology Dream research
Family members, friends and strangers populate most dreams. Freud read many such dreams as wishes in disguise; contemporary researchers emphasise continuity with waking relationships and concerns.
Freud, Dream Psychology (1920)
Myth & scripture (several traditions) Myth & scripture
Dreams in epic and scripture are often addressed to someone — a wife waiting for a husband, a son receiving a vision for his family — and are told aloud to be understood.
Odyssey XIX; Genesis 37
Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.
Dreams that share its images
- A mother praying for a father who never returns Tokyo, Japan · 1908
- Cut the priests of Egypt asunder Egypt · c. 700 BCE (as told)
- His head touched the heaven Egypt · 522 BCE (as told)
- Three ears of grain on the palace roof Guanghan, Sichuan, China · early 1st century
- A golden hump on his neck Rome, Italy · c. 90s CE
- A spirit passed before my face Land of Uz · undated narrative