Mystical systems
Oneirocritica
Direct answer
Oneirocritica: The Oneirocritica is a Greek handbook of dream interpretation in five books, written by Artemidorus of Daldis in the second century CE, the fullest to survive from antiquity.
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At a glance
- Also called
- Artemidorus dream book, Artemidorus of Daldis, ancient Greek dream interpretation
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Oneiromancy, Dream Interpretation, Dream Incubation, Oneirology
The Oneirocritica is a Greek handbook of dream interpretation in five books, written by Artemidorus of Daldis in the second century CE, the fullest to survive from antiquity.
A lineage map for books and systems; it avoids presenting symbolic traditions as literal fact.
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What is the Oneirocritica?
Oneirocritica means the interpretation of dreams. Artemidorus wrote it as a working manual, built, he says, from older books and from years of collecting dreams and their outcomes from diviners in the marketplaces and festivals of Greece, Asia and Italy.
He separates the enhypnion, a dream that merely echoes the day's hunger, fear or desire, from the oneiros, which signifies something to come. Significant dreams are either direct, showing the event itself, or allegorical, showing it through another thing. His firmest rule is that the same image means different things for different dreamers, so the interpreter must know the person's trade, age, health, standing and customs.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Dreams.
What sets Oneirocritica apart
What marks the Oneirocritica out from later dream books is its method. It is not an alphabetical list of meanings; it is arranged by subject, from the body and its parts through crafts, gods and death, and it argues for each reading. Artemidorus claims experience as his authority and says he checked interpretations against what afterwards happened. The fifth book is a casebook of ninety-five dreams with their outcomes, set down as practice material for his son.
- Author: Artemidorus of Daldis, second century CE
- Language and length: Greek, five books
- Key distinction: enhypnion, a dream of the present state; oneiros, a dream that signifies
- Two kinds of oneiros: theorematic, direct; allegorical, by likeness
- Book five: ninety-five dreams with their recorded outcomes
- First printed: Venice, 1518
Often mistaken for something else: A modern dream dictionary gives one meaning for each image; the Oneirocritica gives several and makes the choice depend on who the dreamer is.
The story behind Oneirocritica
Artemidorus lived in the second century CE and called himself of Daldis, his mother's town in Lydia, though he was from Ephesus. The first three books are dedicated to a patron and the last two were written for his son, also a dream interpreter. Hunayn ibn Ishaq put the work into Arabic in the ninth century, and it was printed in Greek in Venice in 1518. Freud discussed it in The Interpretation of Dreams.
Why Oneirocritica matters
Oneirocritica shows how old the rule is that a dream symbol has no fixed meaning apart from the life of the person who dreamt it.
How to read Oneirocritica
Historians read it for the daily life of the Roman world, and dream workers cite it as the ancestor of every dream dictionary.
Oneirocritica in practice: an example
Artemidorus reads a dream of losing teeth one way for a debtor and another way for the head of a large household.
Where readings of Oneirocritica go wrong
Oneirocritica’s readings assume that dreams foretell and reflect the values of its age, including slavery; it is a historical source, not a guide to follow.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- Oneirocritica of Artemidorus, Artemidorus dream book, Artemidorus of Daldis, ancient Greek dream interpretation, Oneirocritica meaning
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is the Oneirocritica?
A Greek treatise on interpreting dreams, in five books, by Artemidorus of Daldis. Written in the second century CE, it is the only complete dream book to survive from the Greek and Roman world.
Who was Artemidorus?
A professional dream interpreter of the second century CE, born in Ephesus, who named himself after Daldis in Lydia. Almost everything known about him comes from his own book.
How did Artemidorus interpret dreams?
By analogy and by context. He looked for a likeness between the dream image and a possible event, then weighed it against the dreamer's occupation, status, age and local customs before giving a reading.
