Philo of Alexandria’s Dream Classification
Sofía Torallas Tovar
Archiv für Religionsgeschichte March 1, 2014 DOI: 10.1515/arege-2013-0006 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 3 |
| Key points | Argues that Philo built his treatise on dreams on the Stoic three-fold classification, adding a gradation by phenomenology and clarity of message: God-sent dreams are perfectly clear, while soul-sourced dreams are obscure and require a skilled interpreter. The author contends that a dream's clarity depended on the dreamer's soul perfection, complemented by a second three-fold classification of types of lives or souls, illustrated mainly by the Patriarchs. |
Abstract
Abstract The Stoic three-fold classification of dreams provided Philo with a structure upon which he built his treatise on Dreams. This treatise was meant to comment on the dreams appearing in the book of Genesis, in the strict order of their appearance in the Scripture. The classification as presented by him added a gradation which classifies dreams by their phenomenology and the clarity of the message they convey. While dreams sent by God are perfectly clear, those which have the soul as a source are obscure enough to require the intervention of a skilled interpreter. The obscurity or clarity of dreams depended on the perfection acquired by the soul of the dreamer. At this point a second three-fold classification complements the one on dreams: the classification of types of lives or types of souls, which involves a gradation of the soul in its progress towards perfection, using as examples the characters appearing in the Scriptures, mainly the Patriarchs.