18

For this reason memory is confused, and foresight, drowsing under some doubtful veils, forms fantasies in images of the things pursued while awake, and has often indicated something of what is to come. For by the subtlety of its nature, it has some advantage over the grossness of the body in being able to perceive something of what is. Yet it is not able 172 to clarify what is said in any direct way, so that the instruction of the matters at hand is far-shining and manifest; but the indication of the future is oblique and doubtful, which those who interpret such things call a riddle. Thus the cupbearer squeezes the grape-cluster into Pharaoh's cup; thus the baker imagined himself carrying baskets; in those things in which each was occupied while awake, in these he supposed himself to be occupied also through his dreams. For the images of their usual occupations, having been impressed on the prognostic part of the soul, allowed them for a time to divine what would happen through such a prophecy of the mind. But if Daniel and Joseph, and those like them, were instructed in the knowledge of the future by divine power, with no sense perception clouding them, this has nothing to do with the present argument. For no one would reckon these things to the power of dreams, since it would necessarily follow that he would suppose the theophanies that occur while awake to be not a vision, but a consequence of nature operating automatically. Therefore, just as while all men are governed according to their own mind, few are they who are deemed worthy of divine communion openly; so too, while the fantasy in sleep occurs by nature commonly and equally to all, some, not all, partake of a more divine manifestation through dreams. But for all the rest, even if some foreknowledge of something comes from dreams, it happens in the manner described. And if the Egyptian and the Assyrian tyrant were led by God to the knowledge of the future, what is being arranged through these things is another matter; for the hidden wisdom of the saints had to be revealed, so that it might not pass through life useless to the community. For how would Daniel have been known to be such a man, had the enchanters and magicians not failed to find the vision, And how would the Egyptian nation have been saved, with Joseph shut up in prison, if the interpretation of the dream had not brought him into their midst? Therefore these things are something else, and should not be reckoned among the common fantasies. But this usual vision of dreams is common to all, occurring in many ways and many forms in the fantasies. For either the echoes of daily occupations remain, as has been said, in the memory of the soul; or often the state of dreams is also shaped according to the qualities of the body's dispositions. For thus the thirsty man seems to be at springs, and the one in need of food at feasts, and the young man, his age being vigorous, fantasizes with a corresponding passion. I also came to know another cause of things that happen in sleep, while treating one of my acquaintances who was seized with a frenzy, who, being weighed down by food brought to him in greater quantity than his strength could bear, shouted, blaming those standing around, that they had filled intestines with dung and placed them on him.

173 And as his body was already hastening to sweat, he accused those present of having water ready to drench him as he lay, and he did not cease shouting, until the outcome of such complaints explained the causes. For suddenly a great sweat flowed over his body, and his belly, being purged, signified the heaviness in his intestines. Therefore, what his nature was experiencing, with his sobriety blunted by the disease, being jointly disposed with the suffering of the body—being not insensitive to the affliction, but unable to clarify the pain distinctly, because of the delirium from the disease; this, in all likelihood, if the discursive part of the soul had been lulled not by sickness, but by natural sleep, would have become a dream for one so disposed, with water for the flowing of sweat, and with the weight of intestines for that according to the

18

∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἤ τε μνήμη συγκεχυμένη, καὶ ἡ πρόγνωσις προκαλύμμασί τισιν ἀμφιβόλοις ἐπι νυστάζουσα, ἐν εἰδώλοις τῶν καθ' ὕπαρ σπουδαζομέ νων φαντασιοῦται, καί τι τῶν ἐκβαινόντων πολλάκις ἐμήνυσε. Τῷ γὰρ λεπτῷ τῆς φύσεως, ἔχει τι πλέον παρὰ τὴν σωματικὴν παχυμέρειαν εἰς τὸ καθορᾷν τι τῶν ὄντων δύνασθαι. Οὐ μὴν δι' εὐθείας τινὸς δύνα 172 διασαφεῖν τὸ λεγόμενον, ὡς τηλαυγῆ τε καὶ πρό δηλον εἶναι τὴν τῶν προκειμένων διδασκαλίαν· ἀλλὰ λοξὴ καὶ ἀμφίβολος τοῦ μέλλοντος ἡ δήλωσις γίνεται, ὅπερ αἴνιγμα λέγουσιν οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα ὑποκρινόμενοι. Οὕτως ὁ οἰνοχόος ἐκθλίβει τὴν βότρυν τῇ κύλικι τοῦ Φαραώ· οὕτω κανηφορεῖν ὁ σιτοποιὸς ἐφαντάσθη, ἐν οἷς καθ' ὕπαρ ἑκάτερος τὴν σπουδὴν εἶχεν, ἐν τούτοις εἶναι καὶ διὰ τῶν ὀνείρων οἰόμενος. Τῶν γὰρ συνήθων αὐτοῖς ἐπιτηδευμάτων τὰ εἴδωλα τῷ προγνωστικῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐντυπωθέντα, παρέσχεν ἐπὶ καιροῦ τῶν ἐκ βησομένων διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης τοῦ νοῦ προφητείας καταμαντεύσασθαι. Εἰ δὲ ∆ανιὴλ καὶ Ἰωσὴφ, καὶ οἱ κατ' ἐκείνους θείᾳ δυνάμει, μηδεμιᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπιθολούσης αἰσθήσεως, τὴν τῶν μελλόντων γνῶσιν προεπαιδεύοντο, οὐδὲν τοῦτο πρὸς τὸν προκείμενον λόγον. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄν τις ταῦτα τῇ δυνάμει τῶν ἐνυπνίων λογίσαιτο, ἐπεὶ πάντως ἐκ τοῦ ἀκολούθου καὶ τὰς καθ' ὕπαρ γινομένας θεοφανείας οὐκ ὀπτασίαν, ἀλλὰ φύσεως ἀκολουθίαν κατὰ τὸ αὐτόματον ἐνεργουμένην οἰήσεται. Ὥσπερ τοίνυν πάντων ἀνθρώ πων κατὰ τὸν ἴδιον νοῦν διοικουμένων, ὀλίγοι τινές εἰ σιν οἱ τῆς θείας ὁμιλίας ἐκ τοῦ ἐμφανοῦς ἀξιούμενοι· οὕτω κοινῶς πᾶσι καὶ ὁμοτίμως τῆς ἐν ὕπνοις φαν τασίας κατὰ φύσιν ἐγγινομένης, μετέχουσί τινες, οὐχὶ πάντες, θειοτέρας τινὸς διὰ τῶν ὀνείρων τῆς ἐμφανείας. Τοῖς δ' ἄλλοις πᾶσι κἂν γένηταί τις ἐξ ἐνυπνίων περί τι πρόγνωσις, κατὰ τὸν εἰρημένον γίνεται τρόπον. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ὁ Αἰγύπτιος καὶ ὁ Ἀσσύριος τύραννος θεόθεν πρὸς τὴν τῶν μελλόντων ὡδη γοῦντο γνῶσιν, ἑτερόν ἐστι τὸ διὰ τούτων οἰκονομού μενον· φανερωθῆναι γὰρ ἔδει κεκρυμμένην τὴν τῶν ἁγίων σοφίαν, ὡς ἂν μὴ ἄχρηστος τῷ κοινῷ παρα δράμῃ τὸν βίον. Πῶς γὰρ ἐγνώσθη τοιοῦτος ὢν ∆ανιὴλ, μὴ τῶν ἐπαοιδῶν καὶ μάγων πρὸς τὴν εὕρε σιν τῆς φαντασίας ἀτονησάντων, Πῶς δ' ἂν περι εσώθη τὸ Αἰγύπτιον ἔθνος, ἐν δεσμωτηρίῳ καθειργμέ νου τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ, εἰ μὴ παρήγαγεν εἰς μέσους αὐτὸν ἡ τοῦ ἐνυπνίου κρίσις; Οὐκοῦν ἄλλο τι ταῦτα, καὶ οὐχὶ κατὰ τὰς κοινὰς φαντασίας λογίζεσθαι χρή. Ἡ δὲ συνήθης αὕτη τῶν ὀνείρων ὄψις κοινὴ πάντων ἐστὶ, πολυτρόπως καὶ πολυειδῶς ταῖς φαντασίαις ἐγγινομένη. Ἢ γὰρ παραμένει, καθὼς εἴρηται, τῷ μνημονικῷ τῆς ψυχῆς τῶν μεθημερινῶν ἐπιτηδευ μάτων τὰ ἀπηχήματα· ἡ πολλάκις καὶ πρὸς τὰς ποιὰς τοῦ σώματος διαθέσεις ἡ τῶν ἐνυπνίων κατά στασις ἀνατυποῦται. Οὕτω γὰρ ὁ διψώδης ἐν πηγαῖς εἶναι δοκεῖ, καὶ ἐν εὐωχίαις ὁ τροφῆς προσδεόμενος, καὶ ὁ νέος, σφριγώσης αὐτῷ τῆς ἡλικίας, καταλλήλῳ τῷ πάθει φαντασιοῦται. Ἔγνων δὲ καὶ ἄλλην ἐγὼ τῶν καθ' ὕπνου γενομένων αἰτίαν, θεραπεύων τινὰ τῶν ἐπιτηδείων ἑαλωκότα φρενίτιδι, ὃς βαρούμενος τῇ τροφῇ πλείονι τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ προσενεχθείσῃ, ἐβόα, τοὺς περιεστῶτας μεμφόμενος, ὅτι ἔντερα κόπρου πληρώσαντες εἶεν ἐπιτεθεικότες αὐτῷ.

173 Καὶ ἤδη τοῦ σώματος αὐτῷ πρὸς ἱδρῶτα σπεύ δοντος, ᾐτιᾶτο τοὺς παρόντας ὕδωρ ἔχειν ἡτοιμα σμένον, ἐφ' ᾧ τε καταβρέξαι κείμενον, καὶ οὐκ ἐνεδί δου βοῶν, ἕως ἡ ἔκβασις τῶν τοιούτων μέμψεων τὰς αἰ τίας ἡρμήνευσεν. Ἀθρόως γὰρ ἱδρώς τε πολὺς ἐπεῤῥύη τῷ σώματι, καὶ ἡ γαστὴρ ὑποφθαρεῖσα τὴν ἐν τοῖς ἐν τέροις βαρύτητα διεσήμανεν. Ὅπερ τοίνυν, ἀμβλυν θείσης ὑπὸ τῆς νόσου τῆς νήψεως, ἔπασχεν ἡ φύσις συνδιατιθεμένη τῷ πάθει τοῦ σώματος, τοῦ μὲν ὀχλοῦντος οὐκ ἀναισθήτως ἔχουσα, διασαφῆναι δὲ τὸ λυποῦν ἐναργῶς, διὰ τὴν ἐκ τῆς νόσου παραφορὰν, οὐκ ἰσχύουσα· τοῦτο κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς, εἰ μὴ ἐξ ἀῤῥω στίας, ἀλλὰ τῷ κατὰ φύσιν ὕπνῳ τὸ διανοητικὸν τῆς ψυχῆς κατηυνάσθη, ἐνύπνιον ἂν τῷ οὕτως διακει μένῳ ἐγίνετο, ὕδατι μὲν τῆς τοῦ ἱδρῶτος ἐπιῤῥοῆς, ἐντέρων δὲ βάρει τῆς κατὰ τὴν