A statue running with blood

Rome (setting) · 1599 (play); set 44 BCE

She dreamt tonight she saw my statue, Which like a fountain with an hundred spouts Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it.

Original text — The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, William Shakespeare

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Source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare — William Shakespeare, c. 1593–1607. Julius Caesar, II.ii
Rights: Public domain (author died 100+ years ago)
Record type: Literary dream
Place: Rome (setting) · British
Date: 1599 (play); set 44 BCE
Uncertainty: Moderate — Caesar’s wife Calpurnia’s dream, after Plutarch.
Imagery: City · Crowd · Water · The dead · Ruler
Feelings: Unease · Horror

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Houses, corridors and endless stairs are frequent dream settings. Some writers read buildings as figures for the self; others note simply that dreams rebuild the spaces we move through every day.

cf. Stevenson, A Chapter on Dreams (1888)

Mythological

Labyrinths, towers and underground cities appear in myths from Crete to Babel — built places where people lose their way, reach too high, or find hidden kingdoms.

Greek myth; Genesis 11

Chinese traditions

Tang tales like “The Governor of Nanke” place a whole kingdom of palaces inside a dream, only to reveal it as an ants’ nest — a lasting image for the brevity of worldly glory.

Li Gongzuo, c. 802

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images

My lady came and found me dead Mantua (setting) · c. 1595 (play)
Swimming out with the teacher to a wedding Switzerland · c. 1910
A plague of certainty Siberia, Russia · 1866 (novel)
I no longer dream of the Duke of Zhou State of Lu, China · c. 5th century BCE
Into the water with three knives Guangling (Yangzhou), China · c. 890
At West Lake, knowing it was a dream Huangzhou (Huanggang), China · c. 1080–1084