About this episode
Mary and Charlotte explore the dream interpretations of Artemidorus, revealing insights into ancient Roman life and culture.
Nearly 2000 years before Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams, a sage in Ephesus (now in Turkey) wrote a book whose title translates as… The Interpretation of Dreams. Armed with Artemidorus’ book, Mary and Charlotte dive into the surreal and revealing dreamscape of the Ancients. If you’ve ever had a dream about flying or losing teeth or sex with a stranger, well… Artemidorus has a view about what this really means. Today, we might find his interpretations a little too neat and prescriptive, but they provide a fascinating insight into life on the edge of the Roman empire, including what people chatted (or sang) about at the public baths, the prevalence of mice in the home, and the hopes, aspirations and fears of household slaves. As with our episodes on Roman joke and cook books, we discover that the Ancients were simultaneously more like us and more dissimilar than we might expect. Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: The best translation of Artemidorus is by Martin Hammond in the Oxford World’s Classics series (OUP,pb, 2020) with an introduction by Peter Thonemann. Thonemann discusses the text and its context in his An Ancient Dream Manual…
People in this episode
Hosts: Mary, Charlotte
Topics covered
- Roman dreams
- Artemidorus
- interpretation of dreams
- ancient life
- Roman empire
- cultural insights
Keywords
- dream interpretation
- Artemidorus
- Roman history
- ancient dreams
- Sigmund Freud
- Ephesus
- public baths
- household slaves
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Oxford World’s Classics, Cambridge UP
Books & works: The Interpretation of Dreams, An Ancient Dream Manual: Artemidorus’ The Interpretation of Dreams
Places: Ephesus
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