1

Dream books, ancient Egypt Roman times (second century CE), Papyri
Carlsberg 13 and 14 verso, had also been pub-
LUIGI PRADA
lished (Volten 1942). Besides this material, some
University of Oxford, UK additional small fragments from other papyrus
manuscripts in Demotic of Ptolemaic and
In ancient Egypt, as in many other ancient civi- Roman dates were also known (e.g., Zauzich
lizations, a dream book – also known as an 1980), but the corpus at the disposal of scholars
oneirocriticon – was a handbook containing was, overall, relatively limited. Moreover, the
lists of possible dream topics (from inanimate chronological gap of over a millennium separat-
objects to living creatures, from trivial daily-life ing the Ramesside dream book from its Demotic
happenings to divine visions), each of which counterparts often led scholars to wonder
was followed by its mantic interpretation. In whether there was any continuity between the
contrast with modern dream interpretation two traditions, or if the Demotic dream books
(see DREAM INTERPRETATION) as originally popu- were to be considered as something separate
larized by Sigmund Freud’s work, ancient from their Pharaonic ancestor, and their revival
dream interpretation (also known as oneiro- as a peculiarity of the Graeco-Roman Period.
mancy) interpreted dreams (see DREAMS, PHARA- In the last fifteen years, however, the situa-
ONIC EGYPT AND ANCIENT NEAR EAST) not in order tion has radically changed, mainly thanks to
to unveil facts and events about the dreamers’ an increased interest in the study of papyrolog-
past, but about their future, treating dreams as ical material from the later phases of Egypt’s
omens. Dreams were believed to contain mes- history. We now have papyrus fragments of
sages to be deciphered, messages that con- two more hieratic dream books from Pharaonic
cerned the future of the dreamer or even of a times, namely, from the Late Period (Quack
third party, and thus their interpretation per- 2010). They represent a precious link between
tained to the field of divination (see DIVINATION, the Ramesside dream book and the Graeco-
ANCIENT NEAR EAST), alongside other divinatory Roman material in Demotic, and unambigu-
sciences such as astrology (see ASTROLOGY, ously testify to the continuity of oneiromancy
ANCIENT NEAR EAST). It is important to realize from Pharaonic to Ptolemaic and Roman
that ancient Egyptian oneiromancy (and, more times. As for the Demotic dream books, plenty
generally, divination as a whole) was seen by its of additional papyrus fragments from multiple
practitioners as a proper science. Thus, dream oneirocritica have now been identified and edi-
books constituted actual scientific texts, in ted, or are currently being prepared for publi-
which dreams and predictions based on their cation (Prada 2015; Quack and Ryholt 2019).
interpretation were causally connected, and We thus now have a remarkably large corpus
the very language and style in which dream adding to our knowledge, with, in total,
books were written closely resembled the style remains of three hieratic and more than ten
of other scientific texts, such as medical or even Demotic manuscripts on papyrus (no single
legal manuals. dream book survives intact).
Our knowledge of ancient Egyptian dream The Ramesside dream book is not only the
books has hugely advanced in recent years. earliest known Egyptian dream book; it also
Until the early 2000s, only one manuscript of shows the most peculiar internal organization
Pharaonic date – from the reign of RAMESES II, of them all. The beginning and the end of the
hence dubbed the “Ramesside dream book” papyrus scroll are lost, but from the surviving
(thirteenth century BCE) – was known, Papyrus columns of text we see that the dreams were
Chester Beatty 3 (Gardiner 1935; Szpakowska not ordered by subject matter, as one would
2011), written in hieratic. Substantial fragments perhaps expect to be the most practical and
from two dream books in DEMOTIC dating to reader-friendly taxonomy for a work of this

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Edited by Andrew Erskine, David B. Hollander, and Arietta Papaconstantinou.
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah15116.pub2
2

kind. Instead, the book is structured based on dreams that) a crocodile has sex with her: she
the nature of the dreamer: first come the will die swiftly” (column b2, line 26). This con-
dreams of men who were probably identified tinuous attention to the characteristics of the
as the “followers of Horus” (the passage in dreamer in both Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman
question is lost with the beginning of the dream books is important, for it shows the per-
papyrus), and then those of men dubbed the sistence of an underlying concept that the same
“followers of Seth,” whose characteristics (both dream can have different meanings and out-
physical and behavioral) the text describes in full comes for different dreamers.
detail. Within each of these two sections, dreams The dreams listed in ancient Egyptian oneir-
were subdivided into two further groupings, this ocritica offer an encyclopedic panoramic of the
time on the basis of their mantic value: first topics of which the ancient Egyptians thought
came the dreams interpreted as auspicious, one could ever possibly dream, and thus reflect
and then the ominous ones. To give an idea of their own taxonomy of the world. Indeed, we
the size of this composition, only for the “fol- should not consider them to be a collection
lowers of Horus” more than a hundred auspi- of dreams actually dreamt of and later collected
cious dreams were listed (not all are preserved, in written form. The material they contain is of
due to the papyrus’ damaged condition), which great importance for modern historians not
were then followed by ninety-one considered to only in terms of our study of divination and
be harbingers of misfortune; as one example: “If dreams, but also for what the interpretations
a man sees himself in a dream seeing a dwarf: (i.e., predictions) assigned to each dream reveal
bad, (it means) the robbing of half of his life” with regard to the hopes and fears of entire
(column 8, line 13). Moreover, at the close of social groups. Preoccupations featuring in the
the section dedicated to the ominous dreams predictions include, for example, wealth and
of the “followers of Horus,” the Ramesside financial matters, matrimonial problems or
dream book also contains a magical spell to happiness, social status, health, and divine
ward off any dream’s malignant influence. (dis)favor. They thus enlighten us on the wor-
The two later Pharaonic dream books in ries of the “average” Egyptians, since it is clear
hieratic and, particularly, all the dream books that dream books (especially in the case of the
in Demotic, show a different internal structur- Demotic ones) were not meant to cater only for
ing. Their dreams are ordered based on their the elites.
subject matter, and are thus divided into proper Who were the practitioners who owned
thematic chapters, typically introduced by and used dream books in ancient Egypt? The
headings: dreams about beer, about stones, Ramesside dream book seems to be excep-
about plants, about gods and goddesses, about tional in this respect too, in that it belonged
reading, about writing, about cities, about to the private library of a learned scribe, Qen-
Pharaoh, about swimming, about murder, herkhepshef, living in Deir el-Medina. The
about sex, about birds – the huge number of later dream books are instead likely (and, in
attested topics ideally covers all areas of human most cases, certain) to have been preserved
experience (Prada 2012). Within these the- in temple libraries. Members of the priesthood
matic chapters, auspicious or ominous dreams would specialize in all sorts of divination,
are not separated into two groups, as in the including dream interpretation, and owner-
Ramesside dream book, but are mixed all ship and use of dream books would be their
together. However, at least a basic taxonomy prerogative. Members of the public were prob-
of dreamers was retained also in the Demotic ably able to use their service and have their
dream books, since these manuals can show own dreams interpreted in exchange for a fee
sections catering separately for male and for or an offering, although the sources are not
female dreamers. An example of the latter is, explicit about these more practical implica-
for instance, in P. Carlsberg 13: “when (she tions of oneiromancy.
 3

SEE ALSO: Religion, Pharaonic Egypt. Quack, J. F. (2010) “Aus zwei spätzeitlichen Traum-
büchern (Pap. Berlin P. 29009 und 23058).” In H.
Knuf, C. Leitz, and D. von Recklinghausen, eds.,
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world: ancient Egyptian oneiromancy and Dream Interpretation.” In J. F. Quack and K.
demotic dream books.” In H. Abd El Gawad, N. Ryholt, eds., Demotic literary texts from Tebtunis
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Prada, L. (2015) “Oneirocritica Aegyptiaca: Artemi- Ramesside age.” In M. Collier and S. Snape, eds.,
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