Sleeping in ancient Greece

[friar]

Sleeping in ancient Greece

The god Sleep in accordance with the ancient Greeks was the son of Night and Erebus and brother of Death, the Moro, the wax and the Dream. With Death is said to be twins. Born on the island of Lemnos , the "Island of Dreams ", but worshiped, as evidenced by the sanctuaries were dedicated to him and the statues have been discovered for worship in many places throughout Greece. In depicting him as young, beautiful, with winges on his shoulders or on the temples, to lulls tired as it sprinkled with a twig wet from dew or oblivion as they watered by a horn hypnotic juices or simply waving his wings. They believed that the power of the god Sleep was extremely large. Could sleep up to all the gods and humans: " Sleep all things Kings and gods all things t ' people ' typically refers to the Iliad of Homer. Indeed recorded that could put her to bed and even Jupiter after the instigation of Hera and the promise that he would marry him with Pasithei, the goddess of relaxation and rest.

Sleep and Pasithei having reached together, obtaining thousands of sons, dreams. The brothers dream was known : the Morpheus , the Nickel , the Fovitor and Imagination. At some scholars these deities were not children of Sleep but brothers who lived in a cave near the border of Hades. Each of them had attributed a particular property as is also indicated by their name.

Morpheus was responsible for the "mission" to get various human forms in which it appeared in the dreams of people. In his work in assisting the other Oneiroi. So the action of Morpheus was leading: it was the only one who could intervene in the dreams of kings and heroes , while as mentioned carrying messages from the gods to mortals through dreamy representations.

The Fovitor was he who gave frightening dimension in dreams by taking the form of terrifying monsters or animals.

The Phantom was considered responsible for the obscure and fictional dreams, those in which there was no logic. Was the personification of the imagination .

Finally , the Nickel undertook precisely the opposite effect: prospers those aspects dream depicting reality, making them realistic and understandable for mortals .

More generally, Morpheus was considered the god of dreams, especially the Roman and later Western tradition. Ovid says Morpheus concentrated on the human forms of dreams, while Fovitoras in animal forms and the imagination to inanimate objects. Also referred to Morpheus as leader, had a special responsibility for the dreams of kings and heroes. The Morpheus is represented with wings,that were so strong and durable that could carry him to the ends of the Earth. The drug morphine ( originally " morfion », morphium) got its name from Morpheus .

The text is part of the thesis of Doctor Sotirios N. Papachilleos.
Translation from Greek by Google

[Julie]

Thank you - love learning about all their gods!

[friar]

Glad you liked it, here is some more.....

As we all know from our personal experience, that when we sleep we have no consciousness of ourselves.
And that fact alone is enough to consider the function of sleep in one of the biggest mysteries on in a person's life, which is repeated even daily.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that during our sleep, we are in another dimension...
It is true that modern science has drawn very little attention to the understanding of this truly great mystery, although one third of all of our lives we are sleeping!
Homer, however, seems to have researched the subject in depth and knows very well what happens during sleep, to the point that arrives to support the view that sleep has more power and jurisdiction, even from that of the Father gods and mortals, the almighty Zeus!
Specifically, the V of the Iliad, Homer shows us the dialogue wife of Zeus, Hera CHRYSOPEDILOU with the KASIGNITON Sleep, brother of Death.

«Ἔνθ’ Ὕπνῳ ξύμβλητο καὶ σηγνήτῳ Θανάτοιο,
ἔν τ’ ἄρα οἱ φῦ χειρί, ἔπος τ’ἔφατ’ ἔκ τ’ ὀνόμαζεν:
Ὕπνε, ἄναξ πάντων τε Θεῶν πάντων τ’ ἀνθρώπων
ἠμὲν δὴ ποτ’ ἑμὸν ἔπος ἔκλυες, ἠδ’ ἔτι καὶ νῦν
πύθευ’ ἐγὼ δὲ κέ τοι ἰδέω χάριν ἤματα πάντα.»

( There he met his brother Sleep of Death.
His hand then GRAB Hera tightly and said :
-And sometimes hear me and you did what you said and now
thanks eternal 'll owe if you listen again
and you are a Sleep, Tran King of Gods and Men. )

Then Hera, grateful sleep, time of sexual intercourse with the wife of Zeus, throw up PLENTY OF SLEEP and this in return will give him a comfortable throne will make the behest of the son of Hephaestus, with special grace and art.
The Sleep deeply impressed by the gift to be received in exchange for an offer of its services and was willing to obey.
But suddenly, trying to avoid being served Hera, pretending that she asks him to sleep up to most difficult and strongest of all the Gods.
Because he could sleep deep running Ocean more easily by Zeus to sleep up. And pointed to Hera, the risk incurred when again in the past at the behest of had to sleep up again Jupiter.
Then Hera in trying to convince him that he would give it to his wife to marry PASITHEA which is always the biggest craving of Sleep...
So let us try to interpret what they mean So all these mysterious symbolism of Homer and that could help us in understanding the mysteries of sleep.
The PASITHEA symbolizes man's ability to see with the spiritual eye everything and especially the mysteries of the Invisible World, or mentally.
So the Pasithea symbolizes the result of the operation of the Dream, which offers us the " VIEW of everything, " ie the full view of the invisible world.
A prerequisite, however, to display the Pasithea is not working at all our mind, that our consciousness.
Because logically, when Jupiter - Mind sleep, suppress the functions of conscience our direct consequence of work required in our unconscious, which can be expressed through most of our dreams!
It seems that this important fact, can be achieved by separating the soul from the body, which as is known, can occur during sleep.
It also explains why this omnipotence of Sleep which unlike all modern scientists so clearly understands Homer as follows:
When we are awake, the MIND inactivates OPERATION OF THE SOUL, and hence the appearance of Pasithea because the function of Jupiter - our Mind, limited to one view, the external view of the face that is seen and not the soul.
That the Mind, limited perception of the visible and transient and unable to fully grasp anything related to the invisible eternal and imperishable soul.
In other words, the mind can perceive only the physical view of natural eye and not Mental Spiritual View of the eye, known as the " Third Eye ", since it is mandatory idle for as long as it is running the Mind.
The Pasithea expresses the unique economy ' View per Pasi ", that our access during our sleep, throughout all universes.
So strong and important is the power of sleep if we know how to remember our dreams.
The purpose then why Hera relies Sleep, is to operate through this process of dream and realized through the operation of the soul, they can not through the operation of Mind.
Of course it will be necessary to clarify that things are not so simple, because as it reveals again Homer, all dreams have the same dynamic!
So there are two completely different categories of dreams :
1.The ENYPNIA, which does not reveal any significant information.
2.The dream, if you know to decode is highly revealing and important for our evolution.

Homer, the greatest psychologist of all time is well aware of this fact as we are informed in the Odyssey apocalyptic lyrics:
«Τὸν δ’αὖτε προσέειπε περίφρων Πηνελόπεια:
-Ξεῖν’ ἦ τοι ὄνειροι ἀμήχανοι, ἀκριτόμυθοι
γίγνοντ’ οὐδὲ τι πάντα τελείεται ἀνθρώποισιν:
δοιαὶ γάρ τε πύλαι ἀμενηνῶν εἰσιν ὀνείρων:
αἱ μὲν γάρ κεράεσσι τετεύχαται, αἱ δ’ ἐλέφαντι…»

Then Ulysses answered Penelope:
Stranger - dreams is difficult to explain just one.
It is not certain that will happen what one sees in his sleep!
Why there are TWO GATES from where dreams arrive
one is made of dense IVORYand the other from the sound of horns animal matter...

You should therefore be aware that according to Homer:
DREAMS are USEFUL, but there DREAMS that are useless.
We conclude that in order to interpret a dream, you must first know how to distinguish the useful from the useless dreams.
Because only the correct interpretation and explanation of our dreams could be a significant help to discover our true self...

[friar]

Hypnos(sleep) in the Iliad.

Hypnos used his powers to trick Zeus. Hypnos was able to trick him and help the Danaans win the Trojan war. During the war, Hera loathed her brother and husband, Zeus, so she devised a plot to trick him. She decided that in order to trick him she needed to make him so enamoured with her that he would fall for the trick. So she went and washed herself with ambrosia and anointed herself with oil, made especially for her to make herself impossible to resist for Zeus. She wove flowers through her hair, put on three brilliant pendants for earrings, and donned a wondrous robe. She then called for her daughter Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and asked her for a charm that would ensure that her trick would not fail. In order to procure the charm, however, she lied to Aphrodite because they sided on opposites sides of the war. She told Aphrodite that she wanted the charm to help her parents stop fighting. Aphrodite willingly agreed. Hera was almost ready to trick Zeus, but she needed the help of Hypnos, who had tricked Zeus once before.
Hera called on Hypnos and asked him to help her by putting Zeus to sleep. Hypnos was reluctant because the last time he had put the god to sleep, he was furious when he awoke. It was Hera who had asked him to trick Zeus the first time as well. She was furious that Hercules, Zeus' son, sacked the city of the Trojans. So she had Hypnos put Zeus to sleep, and set blasts of angry winds upon the sea while Hercules was still sailing home. When Zeus awoke he was furious and went on a rampage looking for Hypnos. Hypnos managed to avoid Zeus by hiding with his mother, Nyx. This made Hypnos reluctant to accept Hera's proposal and help her trick Zeus again. Hera first offered him a beautiful golden seat that can never fall apart and a footstool to go with it. He refused this first offer, remembering the last time he tricked Zeus. Hera finally got him to agree by promising that he would be married to Pasithea, one of the youngest Graces, whom he had always wanted to marry. Hypnos made her swear by the river Styx and call on gods of the underworld to be witnesses so that he would be ensured that he would marry Pasithea. Now, with Hypnos' help, Hera went to see Zeus on Gargarus, the topmost peak of Mount Ida. Zeus was extremely taken by her and suspected nothing as Hypnos was shrouded in a thick mist and hidden upon a pine tree that was close to where Hera and Zeus were talking. Zeus asked Hera what she was doing there and why she had come there from Olympus and she told him the same lie she told her daughter Aphrodite. She told him that she wanted to go help her parents stop quarrelling and she stopped there to consult him because she didn't want to go without his knowledge and have him be angry with her when he found out. Zeus said that she could go any time, and that she should postpone her visit and stay there with him so they could enjoy each other's company. He told her that he was never in love with anyone as much as he loved her at that moment. He took her in his embrace and Hypnos went to work putting him to sleep, with Hera in his arms. While this went on, Hypnos travelled to the ships of the Achaeans to tell Poseidon, God of the Sea, that he could now help the Danaans and give them a victory while Zeus was sleeping. This is where Hypnos leaves the story, leaving Poseidon eager to help the Dananns. Thanks to Hypnos helping to trick Zeus, the war changed its course to Hera's favor, and Zeus never found out that Hypnos had tricked him one more time.

[eeckel]

This makes a great bedtime story.

[friar]

Dreams and treatment in Ancient Greece

The concept of disease and thus treatment, was identified since prehistory, in worship or the gods, or the opposite, ie "bad", the demonic deities. Depending on the prevailing theological approach each race per age, were the therapeutic activities. This perception of the disease remains strong until the modern era, though rather it gradually weakens. In all ages, however, man was interested in the treatment of diseases in every possible way.

In Ancient Greece, the oldest current of religious beliefs, attributed healing powers to God Asclepius. The son of a god and a mortal, Asklepios originally did not qualify as one of the12 powerful gods who lived on Mount Olympus, but was considered a demigod, a single hero who had divine origin (as Hercules). The wide popular support, however, placed him as the equivalent of the Gods. Many therapeutic methods have been developed, but the place of exercise of therapy was mainly at the Asclepieia. The multiplicity of these shrines scattered throughout the Greek world (at least 300 points), indicates the great activity and success of this magical form of healing of Asclepius. The sanctuaries were cleverly built into selected area of high beauty and good climate. The combination of miraculous or psychological treatment through faith to any natural or physical therapy offered by the priests, was through hospitalization with medical and lifestyle adjustments.

Gradually, as the therapeutic accumulated knowledge and logic matured, it reached the age where the concept of a doctor or therapist, took a greater distance from that of the priest of Asclepius. The new age marks Hippocrates and the Hippocratic medicine. Although he had already departed from the magical and ritual treatments, in favor of rational science, he managed to combine successfully with the continuing cult of Asclepius, using Asclepieia, much like we use modern hospitals. The Hippocratic medicine retained the "religious-magical" element, not for fear for the unexplainable, but for the sake of the healing power hidden within it!
When patients visited the shrine seeking treatment they were not allowed entry immediately, but only after their purification. This cultivated and strengthened the expectation of treatment in accordance with the placebo effect, they would wash their body (symbolic mental catharsis), make a sacrifice to the god and follow strict fasting. In the evening they were admitted to the sanctuary to spent their night.

One of the treatment modalities was through dreams. During sleepin in some sacred space, the patient accepted a revealing dream that showed him the way of treatment to be followed. If the expected dream did not to appear, the sleepin was repeated several consecutive nights. The dream for us today is usually synonymous with the imaginary and therefore non-existent, because we live in a world where materialism and rationalism prevails in out thoughts and actions. But for our ancestors - and not just for the Greeks, but for all the ancient people of the earth - the dream was twofold. Could present false images and idols ghosts, but also to show truths and to advise definitely, although often through symbols. It had to be explained by someone with the appropriate knowledge. There were special oneiromanteia, like the famous Amfiaraou and Trofonios where the applicant went down in a ditch and was making the oracle himself. Generally preceded by fasting and intense psychological suggestion, the dream he saw was regarded as the response message to the request.
All texts are full of people with major narratives apocalyptic dreams that came true. From the Bible the quite famous Pharaoh's dream with the fat and lean cows that Joseph interpreted.

In Ancient Greece, the Pythagoreans gave great importance to dreams, who even through a suitable lifestyle with proper diet, musical sounds before sleep, orientation of thought (What mistake I committed? What good have I done? What obligation forgot ?) trying to see apocalyptic dreams. The Pythagoreans had a huge influence on Plato. Thoughts of Timaeus, Plato's metaphor of the body as prison, the theory of recollection, the various eschatological myths pupil of Socrates, from a Pythagorean or, more precisely, a orfikopythagoreia tradition. Plato in the State, Chapter I 571 d, e, read about dreams:
"But when a man has regulated the diet of the rules of hygiene and prudence, when, before being handed to sleep, wakes up in the accounting of the soul and nourish it with good reasons and thoughts and brings to them throughout the intellect when without either deny or overload the desirability of, the grant as it takes to fall asleep and not come to disturb the best part of the soul with joy or regret, but leaves it to feel, that does not know the past or the present or the future. When also this man appease the spirited part of the soul and sleep without having his heart troubled by anger against others finally reassures When these two parts of the soul keeping awake only the Third, where the wisdom resides, and so rested, then you know of course that the spirit touches as much as possible the truth ... "

The belief in the symbolic and apocalyptic language of dreams led to oneirokritiki, developed in ancient times too and there was a very rich literature. Dreams written by Antiphon the Athenian or teratoskopos, Demetrius Phaleron, Antipater, Alexander the Myndios, Artemis Miletus, Geminus the Tirius, Artemidorus whose "Oneirokritikon" was saved in 5 books. This divination experience led to technical information search through dreams. The sleepin was taking place in specific places (caves, chasms of the earth, holy) where it was possible to communicate with the dead, the underworld spirits or gods, because the chasms of the earth are in the archaic notion a gateway to the underworld world. A variation of this is necromancy divination developed the so-called psychomanteia psychopompeia or, as was the famous Tainaron through specific persons what they called themselves entertainers (those who lead the souls of the dead over) and the whole ritual called entertainment.
The symbolic and apocalyptic nature of dreams still true today, against the one-sided rationality that governs the lives of most people of our time. Thus, the chemical formula of benzene was discovered thanks to a dream, many great musicians have stated that their compositions they listened first in their dream and even the famous Agatha Christie author of complicated cases of police stories stated that she dreamed them and recorded them in the morning.

The ancients had found a way to accept their sleeping dreams that led them to treatment.

[friar]

It seems certain that the dual nature of the dream is reality. Besides, our thoughts and action of our imagination every day is not the same? Thoughts are mentally games, artificial creatures of the mind without specific and useful conclusion or will be correct reasoning with authority and logical end. And the actions of our imagination belong to the field of creative imagination or are chimeras fanciful, useless idols naivety, useless images without structure and harmony. Even the physical acts that do or is stable, accurate and creative or unnecessary, redundant, neat piece bounced. It seems that the triple world Body, Soul and Mind are actually ancient and in each of these human actions are always twofold: They lead upwards or they are children of ignorance and error and will lead to error and unhealthy inactivity.
Dreams therefore are not outside this context. And the ancients had found a way to accept their sleeping dreams that led them to treatment.

But what was the slumbers and egkoimitika shrines and hospitals?
Slumbers was the whole process of getting to sleep in a sacred space to accept a dream revealing either for therapeutic purposes, either to learn about his future. Egkoimitika divination existed in all parts of the ancient world. So there were several sanctuaries where the therapeutic nature protruded. Certainly such a role they played all Asclepieia and other sanctuaries. The slumbers or Enkoimeterion was the place where the faithful or believers had to go to sleep. Faith certainly played an important role. Here let us remember the words of Christ Himself in a patient cured “Go, your faith has saved”.
In Greece the most famous shrines where egkoimitiria worked for therapeutic purposes was Asclepius at Epidaurus, the Amphiaraeion of Oropoy and Trofonio Cave in Livadia. From all parts of Greece patients flocked to shrines to be cured with the help of the deity. So we see there are ruins, mostly in Epidaurus and Amphiaraeion, which bear witness to the greatness they had in their heyday that lasted centuries. And also today there are temples where mainly, people go for treatment, as the Virgin Mary and Our Lady of Lourdes in France.

But what was the process of slumbers?
The patient Having reached at the holy place, was accepted by the people and priests of the infirmary, which had distributed between them the roles of the various functions-of the sanctuary. It seems that the priests were knowledgeable of various illness, but generally, after the first "test" of the patient, the guidelines were similar: Originally a proper diet or fasting, stay and walks into the holy places, which were formed appropriate to soothe the spirit of patients. Contact with the officers of the temple-infirmary who lead the soul and the mind in a show and mental outlook. There was purifying baths with hot and cold water.

The use of water especially running was very important. So special facilities, exist in all sacred sources, and whatever else was necessary for the use of water. Yet it seems that there was a program of workouts and they were massaged with oil and rubbing the body of patients. Also they drank tea from various herbs and various therapeutic blends, which necessarily had therapeutic and calming activity mainly because all these predated slumbers. Indeed sometimes the sick were well before they needed to follow the rest of the process.

Having therefore been properly prepared the sick and priests, examining the entrails of animals from certain sacrifices, opine that God approved the continuation of the process, then proceeded further. The patient had to sacrifice an animal and to sleep at night over his skin. The whole process with fasting, meditation, cleansing, proper orientation of the soul and mind and even with the escort of patient’s loyalty and instructions for priests, led the night in a revealing dream. In various ways God who can and appeared in the dream of the patient, showed the patient the way and the kind of treatment to be followed. In the morning he told the dream to the priests and they decoded it. Upon leaving, he made a thanksgiving to God. Here we observe that the whole process is of shamanic nature.

The cases of treatment shown were numerous and therefore the sacred shrines flourished for centuries with thousands of tributes from believers in them. Usually they were replicas of body parts treated, which is observed today in churches in front of miraculous images. In these hospitals were sacred temples dedicated to Asclepius or other deity or hero-healer, and several buildings in the form of shelters, fountains, groves, theaters, baths and more. The enkoimeterion was a particular building within which the patient slumbers. In every temple there were certainly some peculiarities. So in Epidaurus, according to one version, the sick were led into a spiral basement corridor under the famous dome. It is not known what happened there. In Trifonio Andro the patient had to pass through a small hole in the back of the antrum, holding offers in his hands. It is said that afterwards it was very difficult for a patient to tell his experience.

But despite the specifics, everywhere where there were therapy shrines slumbers axis was the same: Sleeping aiming a revealing dream. The sleep and therefore the dream was the medium for treatment. Do bear in mind that many times in the ancient mysteries sleep was typical procedure and represented a sort of symbolic temporary death, during which the initiated spent considerable experience and then come back refreshed, reborn. Indeed, the initiatory sleep was taking place next to springs, rivers and streams in general, something that is also found in egkoimitiria. So slumbers were not something accidental, but a part of mystic knowledge used for the benefit of the people, who are interested in getting well from illnesses.

So we understand that mysterious knowledge -and here specifically those were related to the occult science of Therapeutics- was not so detached from ordinary people, but was available to those seeking treatment. For those who want to go further back than the local sanctuaries there were the Mysteries, which offered, in a core of people, the possibility of Initiation, that is the passage to a higher level of consciousness as to which they had reached the great philosophers , tragic poets, politicians and other important people of the pre-classical and classical antiquity. The slumbers were thus an "initiatory" mode of treatment applied successfully in ancient hospitals, where the exercised therapy was a sacred duty and not a profitable profession as it is today.