Logo image
Afterword: Revisioning the Dreams of Everyday Work and Religion
Book chapter

Afterword: Revisioning the Dreams of Everyday Work and Religion

Everyday Religion and Sacred Work in Roman Antiquity and Medieval Societies, pp.220-231
Routledge
2027
DOI: 10.4324/9781003695080-12

View Online

Abstract

The everyday laborscapes of the day often reemerged in the dreamscapes of the night carrying new meanings. And from emperors to artisans, millions living across the premodern Mediterranean believed in the ability of dreams to foretell the future. The ancient Roman dream economy included the purchase of dream manuals, hiring diviners, and even buying incense such as kyphi to help dreamers to inspire and then discern the meaning of nocturnal reveries. The study of oneiromancy reveals inextricable links between work and religion at every socio-economic level in Roman society, from the republic well into the period of late antiquity and beyond. Similarly, this chapter reflects on the need to continue to remap, reclassify, and review constructs of the sacred and the profane to make way for the everyday (and night).
oneiromancy divination sensory history Dreams incense labor

Details

Metrics

1 Record Views
Logo image