Dreams In Ancient Cultures

In Ancient cultures, the purpose of dreams started to have a religious purpose until the Roman Empire, where their views focused more on the empire itself. Some cultures believed that their dreams had a significant value, which was to communicate with the gods. In ancient Mesopotamia, their dreams were meaningful because they perceived them as symbols released from the gods (Ancient Origin). This was important to their culture, as they believed their dreams were a message from the gods. In fact, the ancient Egyptians, thought the same as well “Similar to the Babylonians, Egyptians believed their dreams were messages from the gods” (“Dreams”). To the ancient Egyptians, their dreams were powerful, because of the certainty that their dreams were sent from their gods. In addition, other cultures

Mostly all these ancient cultures strongly believed that their dreams were a way to talk to their gods; to the Hebrew Culture, they thought the same. However, when they had nightmares, they were the opposite of god “The Hebrews believed in only one God and they believed that their pleasant dreams were messages from God, while their nightmares were the work of evil spirits” (“Dreams”). In short, when the Hebrews had good dreams, they were from the Hebrew’s god, but when they had bad dreams or nightmares; they were from the evil spirits. Yet, not all ancient cultures thought that their dreams were just from their gods. To the Romans, their dreams had a more different purpose than the ancient Egyptians, the Greeks and the Sumerians; however, the Romans still had the original notion that dreams were from their gods. In the book, The New Secret Language of Dreams by David Fontana, he explains that the dreams of the Romans were a meaning from their gods “The dreams of the wise were believed to be sent from the gods - or God” (Fontana