A Study of the Types and Purpose of Dreams in Vergil's Aeneid by Shawn McNeely A thesis submitted to the Department of Classics in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada September, 1997 copyright O Shawn McNeely, 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale I*a of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services seMces bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 ûüawaON KIAW Canada CanarJa The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Ll'brary of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distriiute or sell reproduire, prêter, distri'buer ou copies of this thesis in mirofonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic fomats. la forme de microfiche/t&n, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retams ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othemise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT By the time Vergil was writinq (40-19 B.C.) there was already a long tradition of dreams in ancient literature. From the beginning dreams were a topic of interest for poets, historians, and philosophers . We find in the literature of ancient Greece and Rome five main classifications of dreams: prophetic, anxiety, wish- fulfilment, oracular, and incubation. Other drean-types existed, of course, but these seem to have been the ones most employed by ancient authors, In the Aeneid Vergil employs anxiety-dreams six times, oracular-dreams three times, and the incubation-dream once. His choice, we may be sure, was in part detemined by the necessities of plot, and in part under the influences of authors such as Homer, Apollonius, Euripides, Lucretius and Cicero. Without sacrificinq narrative immediacy and the illusion of reality, dreams allow the Vergil to reveal not only simultaneous events, but also a characterts motions, with their causes and potential consequences. Vergil uses dreams in the Aeneid to great effect. Dreams introduce the three main characters in the epic, Aeneas, Dido, and Turnus. They motivate the actions of the characters and help to advance the plot to its conclusion. Dreams not only set Aeneas on his journey and mark his arriva1 in Latium, but they continually provide more information about his destination while on his journey. Dreams also bolster Aeneas' resolve in moments of emotional and physical crisis. In a grander and more enigmatic way, Book 6, as a sustained dream-vision, conveys to the reader, at least, Vergil's vision of both the tragedy and greatness of Rome's mission and history. CONTENTS Abstract Contents iii Preface Chapter 1 Dreams in Antiquity Chapter 2 A Classification of Dreams in the Aeneid Chapter 3 The Purpose of Dreams in the Aeneid Chapter 4 The Underworld as a Dream Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Vita PRE FACE 1 came upon the topic of Vergilts dreams while reading a commentary that suggested the dreams in the Aeneid were virtually the same as those in the Homeric epics. This struck me as an odd comment to make since Homerfs dreiuns do not advance the plot in the way Vergills do, nor are they as numerous. 1 have also found that when some aspect of the Aeneid is simply said to be part of the epic machinery, it is usually because it has not been examined closely enough. So, after doing some preliminary reading, and discovering that there was very little dedicated strictly to Vergills dreams, 1 decided to undertake the present task. 1 have stayed away from interpreting the dreams of the Aeneid for a few reasons. Primarily, though, 1 did not think it just to apply modern psychological theories to literary characters; since Vergil could not have been aware of such theories, he could not have been influenced by them. As far as abbreviations are concerned, 1 have tried to follow the example of 1 Vhnée Philologique. 1 have used C. Day-Lewis1 translation of the Aeneid, as it seems to be one of the best. For the rest, 1 have tried to use the readily accessible Loeb Classical Library, except for the v translation of Herodotusl Histories for which 1 followed the Penguin translation. 1 have used Richmond Lattimorers translations of Homer, which seem to me to contain the fewest errors . Finally, 1 would like to thank the following people for their support of rny research and the production of this thesis : Terry Smith, May Chan, professors Ross Kilpatrick, Tony Marshall, and Dietmar Hagel, and especially my wife Debbie, without whom none of this would have been possible. The earliest classification of dreams in the extant literature of ancient Greece and Rome is found in Homer's epic, the Odyssey.' From the beginning there was a need for those interested in dreams to distinguish between those dreams which foretell the future and those which do noL2 This dichotorny is exemplified in Homer's description of the gates of sleep (Od. 19.559-567) in which the poet differentiates between true and false dreams. According to the Homeric description, false dreams are those which tell of things which do not come to pass; in other words, false dreams are those which do not reliably predict the future. True dreams, on the other hand, reveal to the dreamer events that will come to pass and are therefore to be considered as predicative: lAccording to W. S. Messer, however, "Homeric vocabulary gives no hint of an elaborate classification, under the general term 'dreamv of many types of experiences ...such as gradually took shape and, at a later period, was widely known ." The Dream in Homer and Greek Tragedy, p. 1. Into the Homeric classification could be added the 6vap / ~~o~pdichotomy, important in spelling out what dreams are not. Behr, Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales, p.173. And thoughtfuï Penelope addressed him: Stranger, surely dreams are inexplicable and hard ta interpret, and one does not reveal everything to people. For there are tsm gates of unsubstantial dreams; the one is constructed ftom horn and the other from ivory; those which go thzough the sawn ivory are deceptive, bearing unfulfilled messages; those which go throuqh the polished horn bring reaL +_hings to pass, whenever one is seen by mortals, This early epic division of dreams into two groups, prophetic and non-prophetic, remained ahost unchallenged as the standard classification of dreams, Save for a few refinements, until around the third century B.C. In the Homeric epics there is no question that either type of dreams, both prophetic and non-prophetic alike, are sent from one deity or another. The fifth century historian Herodotus, though he does not present any systematized classification of dreams, retains Homer's two-fold system; in doing so, however, he also provides an alternative to Horner's non-prophetic type. In Herodotus ' Histories, the prophetic dream-type still originates with a god, but no deities ever appear to the dreamer as they do in Homer; rather it is an agent of the divine who appears, just as the 05A&6ve~whoappears to Agamemnon in Book 2 (6-15) of the For a detailed study of dreams in Herodotus see Peter Frisch Die Traume bei Herodot, 1968. I'liad. By the fifth century B-C. it seems that there was a decline in the belief in the traditional gods,' and perhaps it was as a result of this apparent decline that Herodotus attributed the non-prophetic dream-type to the dreamer himself rather than to some external force. As Frtabanes explains to Xerxes, who had been complaining of a recurring dream, these dreams do not give the dreamer a false picture of events to corne, but instead reflect the dreamer's rnind and what he has been concerned with during the day: But these things are not divine, my boy, for the things which wander about to men in sleep are of such a sort as 1 shaZT teach you, being older than you by many years: often these wandering visions which are usual in dreams are what you think about during the day- Although he makes this assertion, ultimately the nature of the dream forces Herodotus to accept that even this dream is divinely sent. Homerts description of Achilles' pursuit of Hector around Troy seems to indicate that this type of dream, the anxiety-dream, was also known to Homer: ' Dodds, p-118. Herod. Hist, 7.16.18-22, predecessors, Plato too employed a two-fold classification distinguishing between prophetic and non-prophetic dream~.'~ Unlike Homer, though, Plato's prophetic dreams did not corne directly from the gods, but rather from a Aaipv péyas (Symp. 202d13), which acts as an intermediary between mortal, and immortals: A god does not egIe with a hm,but al1 dealings and discourse from the go& toward humans [and from himi~nstoward the gods] both those who are awake and asleep are through this [great spirit] . Plato ' s non-prophetic dreams, like Herodotus ' , also reflect to some degree the mind of the dreamer, but that part of the psyche that they reflect, however, is entirely different. In his description of the tyrant, Plato explains that a tyrant is a man who acts on those desires that ordinarily are expressed only through dreams. Dreams that loin his commentasy on Plato's Timaeus, Calcidius attributes a five-fold classification to Plato: dreams which result from physical causes (253), those that result from divine providence, those that result from the love that the gods have for humans (2541, those that reveal the future (255).