DREAM GALAXY

Anecdote collection · People & kin

The dead poet recited a hymn

Thebes, Greece · c. 438 BCE

And there was at Thebes an old woman related to Pindar, who had been accustomed to sing many of his Odes, to her Pindar appeared in a dream and recited his Hymn to Proserpine

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 IX, ch. 23
Rights
Public domain (author died 100+ years ago)
Record type
Anecdote collection
Place
Thebes, Greece · Ancient Greek
Date
c. 438 BCE
Uncertainty
High — From Pausanias’ Description of Greece (A. R. Shilleto trans., 1886); a local tradition recorded by a 2nd-century traveller.
Imagery
Music · Writing · Friend
Feelings
Wonder · Tenderness

Another way to look at this dream

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

Friend

How long since you last saw this friend? What were you doing together in the dream — something you used to do?

Dream research Dream research

The “continuity” view in dream research finds that most dream characters are people we know, and that dreams tend to carry on our waking relationships and concerns.

G. William Domhoff, The Scientific Study of Dreams (2003)

Tang poetry Literature

Du Fu, not knowing whether his exiled friend Li Bai is alive, writes that “my old friend entered my dream, knowing how long I have thought of him”.

Du Fu, “Dreaming of Li Bai” (759)

All perspectives on friend →

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

Dreams that share its images