Anecdote collection · Death & the departed
The god stood by the weeping priest
Memphis, Egypt · c. 701 BCE (as told)
the priest, being driven into a strait, entered into the sanctuary of the temple and bewailed to the image of the god the danger which was impending over him; and as he was thus lamenting, sleep came upon him, and it seemed to him in his vision that the god came and stood by him and encouraged him, saying that he should suffer no evil if he went forth to meet the army of the Arabians; for he himself would send him helpers.
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- Source
- The History of Herodotus (trans. G. C. Macaulay) — Herodotus; trans. G. C. Macaulay, 1890 (translation). Book II, ch. 141
- Record type
- Anecdote collection
- Place
- Memphis, Egypt · Egyptian
- Date
- c. 701 BCE (as told)
- Uncertainty
- High — From Herodotus’ Histories (G. C. Macaulay trans., 1890); a dream as reported by Egyptian priests to Herodotus.
- Imagery
- Temple · War · A stranger
- Feelings
- Fear · 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.
War
In the war, were you a soldier, someone fleeing, or watching from outside? Was there a particular enemy?
Homeric epic Classical text
Zeus sends Agamemnon a deliberately false dream promising that Troy will fall at once. The epic itself treats a war dream as something that can mislead.
Homer, Iliad II
Song-dynasty poetry Literature
Lu You and Xin Qiji, both kept from the frontier they longed to recover, kept dreaming of battle; their war dreams are read today as poems of unfulfilled duty.
Lu You; Xin Qiji
A stranger
Did the stranger remind you of anyone, even slightly? What did they want from you?
Jung · Shadow, anima and animus
Jung read unknown figures as possible parts of the dreamer: a same-sex stranger may carry the shadow; an other-sex figure what he called the anima or animus. These are offered as lenses, not labels — and his gender framing reflects his time.
C. G. Jung, “Aion, ch. 2–3”, Collected Works 9ii
Homeric epic Classical text
In Homer, gods and dreams arrive in borrowed shapes: Athena visits Nausicaa disguised as her friend; Zeus sends a Dream to Agamemnon looking like Nestor.
Odyssey VI; Iliad II
Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.
Dreams that share its images
- Osiris came in his own essence Rome, Italy · c. 170 CE (novel)
- Minerva withdrew from her sanctuary Rome, Italy · 96 CE
- Falling from the palace hall Chang’an, China · c. 750
- The boy in Jupiter’s bosom Rome, Italy · c. 69 BCE
- Thou art but a dead man Gerar, Canaan · undated narrative
- Angina, angina! England · late 19th century