DREAM GALAXY

Anecdote collection · Cities & buildings

Only those Isis invites in dreams

Tithorea, Phocis, Greece · c. 150 CE

nor may any approach the shrine whom Isis herself has not previously honoured by inviting them in dreams. The gods of the lower world have the same practice in the towns near the Mæander, they send visions in dreams to whoever they allow to approach their shrines.

Original text — Pausanias’ Description of Greece (Shilleto trans.), Pausanias; trans. A. R. Shilleto

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Source
Pausanias’ Description of Greece (Shilleto trans.) — Pausanias; trans. A. R. Shilleto, c. 150 / 1886 (trans.). Book X, ch. 32
Rights
Public domain (author died 100+ years ago)
Record type
Anecdote collection
Place
Tithorea, Phocis, Greece · Ancient Greek, Egyptian
Date
c. 150 CE
Uncertainty
Moderate — From Pausanias’ Description of Greece (A. R. Shilleto trans., 1886); a local tradition recorded by a 2nd-century traveller.
Imagery
Temple · Gate
Feelings
Awe · Longing

Another way to look at this dream

Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.

Gate

Was the door open, closed, or locked — and did you want to go through it?

Ancient Greece Classical text

Penelope says dreams come through two gates: those through polished ivory deceive, those through horn come true. Even in Homer, not every dream was to be trusted.

Homer, Odyssey XIX

Anthropology Dream research

Arnold van Gennep described rites of passage as separation, a threshold (“liminal”) stage, and return. Doors and gates are where many cultures stage that middle step.

van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (1909)

All perspectives on gate →

Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.

Dreams that share its images