Dreams, Healing, and Medicine in Greece: From Antiquity to the Present editor by Steven M. Oberhelman (review)
Journal of modern Greek studies October 1, 2014 Peter S. Allen
Dreams have long been linked to health and healing in Greek culture. From ancient times, Greeks recorded their efforts to interpret dreams and use them for medical diagnosis and treatment. Healing sites called Asclepieia were scattered across the eastern Mediterranean, where dreams played a central role in diagnosing and curing physical and psychological ailments. Figures such as Hippocrates and Galen employed dream interpretation and therapy. This volume collects articles by scholars examining these practices from antiquity to the present. Topics include Galen's actual reliance on dreams, distinctions between prophetic and physical dreams at Asclepieia, dream narratives in Hippocratic texts and the writings of Aelius Aristides, and Artemidorus's work on dream interpretation for predicting illness.