Literary dream · People & kin
Isis forbids the mother to obey
Phaestus, Crete · c. 8 CE (poem)
O Telethusa, one of my votaries, lay aside thy grievous cares, and evade the commands of thy husband; and do not hesitate, when Lucina shall have given thee ease by delivery, to bring up the child, whatever it shall be. I am a befriending Goddess, and, when invoked, I give assistance
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- Source
- The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books VIII–XV (Riley trans.) — Ovid; trans. Henry T. Riley, c. 8 / 1851 (trans.). Metamorphoses, Book IX
- Record type
- Literary dream
- Place
- Phaestus, Crete · Roman, Egyptian
- Date
- c. 8 CE (poem)
- Uncertainty
- High — From Ovid’s Metamorphoses (H. T. Riley prose trans., 1851); Isis appears to a pregnant woman on the eve of birth.
- Imagery
- Child · Mother · Temple
- Feelings
- Fear · Relief · 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.
Child
Whose child was it — yours, someone you know, or yourself when young? What did the child need?
Jung · The child archetype
Jung described the “child” in dreams and myth as an image of what is not yet — a beginning, small and easy to overlook, that carries a future.
C. G. Jung, “The Psychology of the Child Archetype”, Collected Works 9i
Psychoanalysis Depth psychology
Freud began his theory with children’s dreams, which he found to be plain, undisguised wishes — a trip promised, a treat withheld.
Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), ch. III
East Asian custom Folk saying
In China and Korea (where it is called taemong), “conception dreams” before a birth are a living custom, often retold within families.
East Asian folk custom
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
- The god stood by the weeping priest Memphis, Egypt · c. 701 BCE (as told)
- Two boys said: move your bed Jiankang (Nanjing), China · c. 480 (Southern Qi)
- Arise, and flee into Egypt Bethlehem → Egypt · c. 1st century (narrative)
- Chased round the stove by the devil Mission school, Wabash, Indiana · c. 1884–87
- Thou art but a dead man Gerar, Canaan · undated narrative
- The earthquake is coming Zurich, Switzerland · c. 1910