The Gates of Sleep in Aeneid 6

Author(s): Nicholas Reed

Source: The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Nov., 1973), pp. 311-315
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/638188
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 THE GATES OF SLEEP IN AENEID 6

Sunt geminae Somni portae, quarum altera

cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris,
altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto,
sed falsa ad caelum mittunt insomnia manes.
his ibi tum natum Anchises unaque Sibyllam
prosequitur dictis portaque emittit eburna. 898
MANY reasons have been put forward to explain why Aeneas and the Sib
should depart through the gate of ivory, which lets out 'false dreams'. The two
views which have perhaps been found the least unsatisfactory are those o
W. EverettI and the one most recently championed by Brooks Otis.2
Everett suggested that it was a common belief in antiquity that false dreams
occur before midnight, and true dreams after midnight; he went on to suggest
that Aeneas left Hades before midnight, when only the ivory gate would be
open. That there was such a common belief has been disputed by, among others
H. R. Steiner.3 The main evidence cited against the existence of the belief is th
Cicero does not mention it in a passage4 where he asks how one might distin-
guish true from false dreams. However, he asks this question 'in view of the
fact that the same dreams can turn out differently for different people, and
sometimes differently even for the same person'. In other words, Cicero is not
so much asking the question, as making the valid point that any criterion on
might produce would be arbitrary and useless in any case. So a theory th
true dreams occur after midnight would be irrelevant to the point he is making
Nor can its absence elsewhere in Cicero be held to disprove the evidence of
other writers. If a belief is mentioned by four writers-as this is-and omitted
by one, this does not show that the belief was never held; merely that it was no
held consistently by everyone. The quite sensible reason why it was held
shown by the Elder Pliny, 'a vino et a cibis proxima, atque in redormitione,
vana esse visa prope convenit.'5 By the second half of the night, such effects
ought to have worn off. There is, then, no immediate reason why Virgil is u
likely to have held this belief, and we must examine whether he wished us to
explain the 'gates of Sleep' passage in this way. If he did, we should expec
reasonably clear indications elsewhere in the Aeneid that false dreams occurr
before midnight, and a reasonably clear indication in this passage that Aeneas
exit was before midnight.
Both requisites are absent. As to the first, it is true that the appearances o
deus Tiberinus (8. 26 ff.) and Anchises (5-. 721 ff.) take place before dawn. But
5. 835 it is 'about the middle of the night' when deceitful Somnus comes
Palinurus, and at 2. 268 a true vision of Hector comes to Aeneas at the tim

I C.R. xiv (1900), 153 f. He was followed 4 De Div. 2. 146.

by E. Norden in his edition of Book VI 5 N.H. O. I. 21I. Macrobius, in Som. Scip.
(Berlin, 1926), 348. I. 3- 4 elaborates on the theme. Similarly
2 T.A.P.A. xc (1959), 173 ff. For a briefnowadays, if a person has nightmares after
bibliography, and reference to other biblio-eating cheese, people in general regard this
graphies, see Otis, op. cit. 173-4. as less significant than if he experiences
3 Der Traum in der Aeneis (Noctes Romanae,them without such a physical cause.
1952), 94-

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312 NICHOLAS REED

'quo prima quies mortalibus aegris in

context, as referring to Aeneas' men,
513) the revelry had been kept up well
would not have come till after midnig
quies mortalibus aegris, not just for th
referred to, and secondly, Deiphobus m
spent the whole night in revelry, so th
for at least part of the time.I In other
true dream as appearing before midnig
this factor of chronology.
Even if, then, we obtained a clear in
midnight, it would still seem doubtf
dreams appeared then. But is there
Hades at dawn (line 255). 450 lines befo
has passed (535-6). Everett thought w
leaves before midnight. Yet Virgil co
remember this 450 lines later, and even
to assume it was before, rather than af
of time we are given at the crucial poin
and his companions, and 'then' they set
this implies that morning has already com
the ships would hardly depart in the m
view of the fact that we are given n
midnight, and that on one occasion a t
must discount Everett's theory where
The second school of thought places
Aeneas is supposed to experience. In its
was disillusioned in his task. Now it m
Virgil took a pessimistic view of some o
to apply this view to the Gates of Slee
Virgil thought that many or all of the
were 'false dreams', and unlikely to c
from lines 756 to 882; all except one of
Virgil was writing. The single exceptio
would extend the Empire super et Garam
this one prophecy, and wished to impl
incredible that he should do so by refe
hundred lines later. He could not hav
implying that all the other prophecies
A more subtle variant of this school o
experiences is itself a dream, rather tha
in the sense that it is not to be taken a
an experience as a 'dream', one means
the mind of the recipient, and is 'no
describes it as a 'true dream', one means
implication that the dream in some wa
reality. But if an experience is describ
that the experience gives a misleading
I As Virgil tells us:See also his book Virgil,
2. 270.
2 The words are those of B.
Poetry Otis, loc.
(Oxford, cit. 30
1963),

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 THE GATES OF SLEEP IN AENEID 6 313

And it is unacceptable that Virgil could have meant to

again seems to imply that the prophecies post eventa w
were not). It would appear, then, that this theory too
try again.
It was pointed out long ago' that the contrast we are presented with is
between true umbrae and false insomnia. Duebner suggested that since Aeneas
and the Sibyl are not 'true shades' they have to depart through the other gate
faute de mieux. But this will hardly do as an explanation: they may not be 'true
shades', but still less could they be called 'false dreams'. Nevertheless, it is
worth noting that Virgil has changed Homer somewhat. In the passage of
Homer on which our passage is based (Od. 19. 562 ff.) Homer describes both
gates as dealing with dreams (JvEapoc) ; in Virgil, one of them deals with umbrae.
Secondly, Virgil calls them not, as in Homer, gates of Dreams, but gates of
Sleep (Somni). Servius suggestedz that this is simply because somniorum is un-
metrical-a ridiculous reason, because Virgil could easily avoid the genitive,
as he does in 896, where he refers to the gate by which the Manes send out
insomnia (accusative). Part of the reason why he makes this distinction between
shades and dreams was emphasized by Steiner.3 Virgil supposes that when one
experiences a true dream in which an ancestor or hero comes to give advice or
prophecy, the dreamer sees the actual shade of the person concerned, whom we
are to envisage as having travelled up from Hades via the gate of horn. This is
moderately clear in Virgil's own narrative, when the facies parentis Anchisae
comes to Aeneas (5. 723); this 'spectre' does not seem to be a mere image, as
the language of the figure, both here and when he is seen in Elysium (6.
679 ff.), strongly suggests that it is the umbra which speaks to Aeneas in both
places. The same idea is more explicit in Homer (1i. 23. 65 ff.), where the
vyX' of Patroclus comes to Achilles and asks to be buried, so that he can pass
through the gates into Hades.4
Through the one gate, then, come the shades of dead people who appear in
dreams to give true messages. Through the other gate come falsa insomnia,
which are doubtless to be identified with the somnia vana which Virgil describes
as living together sheltered by a vast elm near the entrance.5 These are not the
souls of dead people, but insubstantial 'dream-beings',6 which could partially
explain the different wording when Virgil talks of 'true umbrae' but 'false
insomnia'.
Yet it would be dangerous to assume that Virgil was drawing the distinction
as clearly as this. We can point to his use of the word 'insomnia', instead ofjust
'somnia'; this is the first time it is used in Latin in this sense. Virgil has modelled
it on the Greek word dEvWTrwov, which, though it is only an adverb in Homer,
quickly becomes a noun and a synonym of wVELpos by the time of Herodotus.7
In using this newly coined Latin word, I would suggest that Virgil was referring

I By F. Duebner in his edition of the parentando utique adsumitur' (N.H. 18.

Aeneid (Paris, 1866) ad loc. I 18). Presumably by eating beans one would
2 In Aen. 6. 893. dream more, and thus disturb a larger
3 Op. cit. 90, following Heyne. number of spirits from their abode in Hades.
4 This hypothesis would then explain the s 6. 283-4. Virgil has adapted this image
passage where Pliny mentions that the from the description of Sleep in Homer (II.
eating of beans is eschewed by the Pythago- 14. 286 ff.), where 'YTrvos hides high up in
reans, either because it causes dreams, 'aut the branches of a fir-tree, looking like a bird.
ut alii tradidere, quoniam mortuorum 6 Cf. Steiner, op. cit. 87-8.
animae sint in ea (sc. faba), qua de causa 7 Cf. e.g. Hdt. 7. 16 fl.

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 314 NICHOLAS REED

to more than just the 'misleading

seem to be conveying the idea of t
will include the shades of the dead w
somnia vana should themselves be um
to be shades, whether they were on
refer to them as umbrae in line 294-
To summarize. The horn gate deal
insomnia, in which the umbrae appe
which are in themselves false umbr
meaning further than he would wish
the word 'insomnium', and the fact t
appear to show that this is what he n
We can now return to the original
depart through the ivory gate ? As
dreams but also with shades, since b
not just withfalsa somnia but withf
Sibyl, in passing through, are re
shades', and as they are real peopl
precisely what they are.
All through the description of the
Aeneas and the Sibyl are real peop
Hades. Thus, when Aeneas takes up h
he is reminded that they are 'tenu
formae' (292-3). The most striking e
the Sibyl are about to cross the St
take the bodies of the living across a
of the golden bough, he removes a la
so that Aeneas and the Sibyl may ent
them is enough almost to sink the
continue to be reminded of the shad
to whom Aeneas talks.2
When Virgil depicts the two as departing through the ivory gate, he does so
in the thought that they are not 'true' shades but 'false' ones, that is, not really
'shades' at all. We find the word falsus being used in this same sense of 'not-
really x', rather than 'an unreal x', elsewhere in Virgil. At 3- 302 he depicts
Andromache at Buthrotum, offering a sacrifice 'Ante urbem in luco, falsi
Simoentis ad undam'. Here, the wordfalsus has no implication of 'deceptive'
or 'unreal'; rather, it means that although the river is not the real Simois, the
inhabitants of the area have chosen to regard it as such.3 But for what reason
should Virgil have called Aeneas and the Sibyl umbrae, albeit false ones?
When he came to the end of the sixth book of the Aeneid, Virgil was faced
with a problem. He had already described a long and impressive journey to
reach the Underworld. The Sibyl told Aeneas, 'Facilis descensus Averno, . . .
sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, hoc opus, hic labor est'
x This was seen by Servius, in Aen. 5. 840, 3 One can suspect a similar meaning for
but the point has not been taken up since:falsus in the falsi genitoris of I. 7 16. This may
'Bene autem discernit ista Vergilius, ut mean either 'of a deceived father' or 'of
"Somnum" ipsum deum dicat, "somnium" his supposed father-the one he called
quod dormimus, "insomnium" quod vide- father'. The latter is much more likely, in
mus in somnis.' which case it provides a second parallel.
2 Cf. e.g. 492-3; 510; 700-2.

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 THE GATES OF SLEEP IN AENEID 6 315

(126-8), and she referred to his wish 'bis Stygios innare

Tartara' (134-5). Yet for the author to describe the
however briefly, would almost inevitably create an ant
the problem with a stroke of poetic genius. All who le
whether they leave to appear in dreams, or alternative
child as a soul reborn (7 13-14). Such umbrae would not
to the surface-they would simply pass through one of
Homer and appear magically on the surface. If Aeneas
same exit, the need for a lengthy description of the r
have to be regarded as umbrae, which is, after all, wh
used the gates were. But in this case they are 'false' um
sense of 'deceptive', but of 'not really' umbrae, the sens
3. 302.
The danger with any theory which attempts to expla
one, is that it will appear far too complicated for w
philosophical treatise, but a work of poetry. For exam
Virgil as though he left 'clues' for us to 'decipher' (in, fo
word insomnium), one need not see in it those terms. Al
discover the fairly simple ideas which were at the bac
he wrote the passage, and one can only attempt to disc
examination of his actual words. However, I shall now
as I would suggest Virgil saw it. The two gates send ou
Underworld to appear on Earth. Such spirits are 'shade
or false. Aeneas and the Sibyl are real people, and thus
they take their departure though the ivory gate.2

Worcester College, Oxford NICHOLAs REED

2, Court Lane Gardens, London S.E. 21.

I Lucian faced a similar problem at Nec.

and Dr. J. Briscoe for criticism of an earlier
22, and also contrived an easy exit.
version of this article; neither is responsible
2I am grateful to Professor R. G. Austin for the views expressed.

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