Memoir · Death & the departed
The fetters fell from my legs
River Centrites, Anatolia · 401 BCE
In his sleep he thought that he was bound in fetters, but these, of their own accord, fell from off him, so that he was loosed, and could stretch his legs as freely as he wished
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- Anabasis (trans. H. G. Dakyns) — Xenophon; trans. H. G. Dakyns, c. 370 BCE / 1897 (translation). Book IV
- Record type
- Memoir
- Place
- River Centrites, Anatolia · Ancient Greek
- Date
- 401 BCE
- Uncertainty
- Moderate — The next morning a way across the river was found.
- Imagery
- River · War
- Feelings
- Relief · Joy
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Dreams of the dead returning are widely reported after bereavement. Ellis noted how such dreams often move, over years, from disbelief to quiet acceptance; many people describe them as comforting rather than frightening.
Ellis (1911), ch. VIII
Mythological
In Homer, dreams pass through gates of horn and ivory; across many cultures the dead were believed to visit the living in sleep, and dreams were a place where the two could meet.
Odyssey XIX
Chinese traditions
Chinese poets wrote dreams of the departed as acts of remembrance: Su Shi’s “Ten years, living and dead” and Du Fu’s “My old friend entered my dream” are read to this day as elegies.
Su Shi (1075); Du Fu (759)
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.
Dreams that share its images
- Fell in the river, boots still dry Chang’an, China · c. 810
- Armoured horses on frozen rivers Shanyin (Shaoxing, Zhejiang), China · 4th day of the 11th lunar month, 1192
- A willow tree fell to the ground Chang’an, China · 815
- My friend fell into the river over a gambling debt Zhejiang River, China · 3rd–4th century
- Floating on warm, transparent lakes Paris, France · c. 1900
- Heaven did not seem to be my home Yorkshire moors, England · 1847 (novel)