Anecdote collection · Falling & stuck
When Nero has a tooth drawn
Achaia, Greece · 67 CE
He dreamt in Achaia that the good fortune of himself and his family would begin when Nero had a tooth drawn; and it happened that the day after, a surgeon coming into the hall, showed him a tooth which he had just extracted from Nero.
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- Source
- The Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Thomson trans., rev. Forester) — Suetonius; trans. Alexander Thomson, rev. T. Forester, c. 121 / 1796 (trans.). Vespasian, ch. V
- Record type
- Anecdote collection
- Place
- Achaia, Greece · Roman
- Date
- 67 CE
- Uncertainty
- High — From Suetonius’ Lives of the Twelve Caesars (A. Thomson trans., rev. T. Forester); an omen-dream reported by a Roman biographer.
- Imagery
- Teeth · Ruler
- Feelings
- Wonder
Another way to look at this dream
Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.
Teeth
What happened to the teeth, and who saw it? When you woke, was the feeling closer to embarrassment, loss, or relief?
Jung · Persona
Jung used “persona” for the face we show the world. Losing something as visible as teeth invites the question — only a question — of how you are being seen.
C. G. Jung, “The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious”, Collected Works 7
Greek dream interpretation Classical text
Artemidorus read the teeth as members of the household, with different teeth standing for different relatives, so a lost tooth concerned the family rather than the mouth.
Artemidorus, Oneirocritica (2nd c. CE), book I
Chinese folk dream books Folk saying
Popular dream books in the Duke of Zhou tradition also tie teeth to relatives, and some read a lost tooth as an omen. That is a folk convention; this site does not treat dreams as predictions.
Folk dream books (Zhougong jiemeng tradition)
Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.
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