Dream Galaxy

Literary dream · Flight & sky

A snake became an eagle and carried me off

Asia Minor · c. 470 BCE

Themistocles, going to bed, dreamed that he saw a snake coil itself up upon his belly, and so creep to his neck; then, as soon as it touched his face, it turned into an eagle, which spread its wings over him, and took him up and flew away with him a great distance

Original text — Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Dryden trans., rev. Clough), Plutarch; trans. John Dryden et al., rev. A. H. Clough

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Source
Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Dryden trans., rev. Clough) — Plutarch; trans. John Dryden et al., rev. A. H. Clough, c. 100 / 1859 (revision). Life of Themistocles
Rights
Public domain (author died 100+ years ago)
Record type
Literary dream
Place
Asia Minor · Ancient Greek
Date
c. 470 BCE
Uncertainty
High — From Plutarch’s Lives (Dryden translation, revised by Clough); a reported dream.
Imagery
Animals · Bird · Flight · Sky
Feelings
Fear · Awe · Relief

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Flying and floating dreams are among the most widely reported dream types. Ellis tied them to breathing and balance during sleep; others have associated them with freedom or lucid awareness.

Ellis (1911), ch. VI

Mythological

Ascent recurs across traditions: Icarus and his wax wings, Jacob’s ladder between earth and heaven, shamanic journeys to the upper world. Many of these stories hold both aspiration and a warning.

Greek myth; Genesis 28

Chinese traditions

Chinese literature is full of dream journeys skyward — Li Bai flying across Mirror Lake, Li He gazing down at China as “nine specks of smoke” — where flight becomes a way to see the world at a different scale.

Li Bai; Li He

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images