An Ancient Dream Manual: Artemidorus’ Interpretation of Dreams

Homeric tradition which localise solstitial concepts, including analysis of solar conditions and calendrical references in the far north, the land of the Hyperboreans. Some of those which frame diurnal solar activities emerge from discussions of the sun’s voyage in a cup, passage through the Pylian and other gates, and places visited by the Argonauts. This section cautiously extends the mythic model beyond the Greek tradition to the Middle East, invoking the solar voyages of Gilgamesh and Alexander. The references cited in this scholarly work are formidable, but although I was far less familiar with them than the author I was nonetheless able to cross the extraordinary cross-cultural bridge that Bilíc has built. Whether the sun races across the sky in a chariot, whether his daily course is limited seasonally or daily by mountains, islands, gates and thresholds, and whatever mythical lands are surrounded by an accessible world of the dead where the sun sleeps a while, the way you witness and tell the story of the sun’s journey depends precisely on where you are in the world.