Database of Ancient Dream Reports

Introduction

This database will include catalogues of dream reports in ancient Greek and Roman literature from the earliest sources of the archaic age until late antiquity. The reports range from short mentions to detailed descriptions of dreams experienced or supposedly experienced by individuals or, occasionally, more than one person. The word "dream report" is used in order to acknowledge that an actual dream is quite a different thing from its retellings, and furthermore, in order to include made-up dreams.

For explanations of most abbreviations, see the list in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition.

The Greek and Latin catalogues

The Greek and Latin catalogues are organised on the basis of genres, under which the authors are grouped chronologically. The dream reports in each author are catalogued under the author's site (e.g. "Herodotus"), in addition to which each dream report has its own entry (e.g. "Hdt. 1.34–45") with more detailed information and occasionally text excerpts.

The text excerpts cited on the website derive mostly from resources that are in the public domain (e.g. Perseus Digital Library, LacusCurtius, Attalus, Livius, Tertullian, ToposText). For research purposes, it is generally recommended to consult the original editions of the texts as well as editions that are up to date, which cannot be guaranteed for all the editions that are in the public domain. It should be noted that the editions used in the numbering of the passages are not always the same as those from which the excerpts derive, in which case they are indicated separately.

Additional resources

In addition to the catalogues, the database will include annotated lists of

1) persons involved in the dream reports as either dreamers or reporters of dreams (within the narrative, i.e., excluding authors, unless they appear as characters within the narrative who report the dream to someone),
2) events associated with the dream reports,
3) cults associated with the dream reports,
4) dream topics, i.e. actions, events, objects, motives, etc. attested in the descriptions of dream content, and
5) phenomena related to dreams and dreaming in the reports, including apports, incubation, collective dreaming, recurring dreams, and sleep-talking.

Other resources will include an index of authors and a bibliography. For a more comprehensive bibliography on ancient dream reports, consultation of the bibliographical database Dreams of Antiquity (DoA) 2.0 is recommended.

Author, copyright, and contact info

The database was created and is maintained by Jamie Vesterinen who is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki specialising in dreams and dreaming in ancient literature. Helpful suggestions and notifications of errors and omissions are appreciated. Email: jamie.vesterinen(at)helsinki.fi.

The catalogues and any information contained on the website may be cited and quoted freely with a source reference, link, and date of access. For citing or quoting the text excerpts quoted on the website, please consult the original text source (indicated for each excerpt) and refer to the original source. Most of these are open access sources.

The project has received funding from The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters.