ABSTRACT
Before considering the ideas of the early philosophical and medical writers on sleep and dreams, a broader look at both their context and their precedents will help situate these emerging ideas within wider cultural beliefs, as well as establishing their relationship – if any – to pre-existing and contemporary opinions, ideas, and depictions of these two phenomena. As already highlighted in the introduction, there are many dedicated studies on the Greek dream, especially as it appears in Homer and in wider literature across the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. Rather than repeat these chronological studies or cover every single instance of sleeping or dreaming in the entirety of Greek literature, this chapter takes a more thematic approach and examines several different aspects of sleep and dreams across ‘popular’ works of the Archaic and Classical periods to elucidate not only the literary features, but also the inherent cultural beliefs which underlie the various depictions of both processes. A brief discussion on mythic tradition preludes the literary discussions to clarify some background issues on sleep and dreams in Greek society more broadly. As this chapter attempts to highlight, sleep and dreams in Greek popular literature are fluid and dynamic experiences, drawn from a variety of differentiated yet co-existing beliefs.
