ipl-logo

Interpretation Of Dreams In The Babylonian Epic Of Gilgamesh

1214 Words5 Pages
HISTORY
According to some ancient societies, they interpret dream as supernatural communication or divine intervention which people with power only can unveil the meaning. Sumerians in Mesopotamia recorded the dream in a clay tablet and believed that one will leave his body and travel to another dimension which is dream world.
In Eastern Mediterranean, people interpret dream as mantic or future predicting weather it is good or bad. Good dreams are from God while bad dreams are from demons. Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the examples of dream interpretation. Gilgamesh dream that an axe fall from the sky and people amazed by it and Gilgamesh embraced the axe like a wife. Ninsun, his mother, interpret the dream and said that someone will come and he would try to beat him but he fail because eventually they become a close friends and accomplish a great things together. Gilgamesh should embrace him as his wife so that he will never leave him. The axe is seen as phallic and aggressive which symbolized a male who starts the fight but turn into a friend. Embracing the axe shows aggression transformed into affection. “Dream Book”, a compendium of dream omen was then assembled.
Egypt in ancient time pointed the priest as the dream interpreters. They interpret dreams by hieroglyphics. For them, dreams are considerably significant through history by most cultures that were recorded on papyrus. A special temple is built devoted to dreaming. Sick people who slept here will
Open Document