The Egyptians believed that dreams could foretell the future.\u00a0 And as such the interpretation of dreams played an important part of ancient Egyptian culture.\u00a0 In fact, the interpretation of dream persists among modern Egyptians today.<\/p>\n
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Two so-called “dream books” have survived from ancient Egypt.\u00a0 Perhaps the most interesting is Papyrus Chester Beatty III<\/em>, a fragmentary papyrus written in hieratic.\u00a0 This papyrus is a catalog of dreams and their interpretations.<\/p>\n The format of the interpretations is quite formulaic.\u00a0 All the dreams are predicated upon you appearing your dream.\u00a0 The dream is then summarized.\u00a0 The book then gives a one-word appraisal of the\u00a0 dream, either “good” or “bad.”\u00a0 And then the book predicts what’s going to happen to you.<\/p>\n A couple of examples from\u00a0 the dream book are as follows: “[if a man sees himself in a dream] seeing the god who is above–good; it means much food.”\u00a0 Or, “[…] seeing himself [in] mourning–good; the increase of his possessions.”\u00a0 Or, “[…] looking in a deep well–bad; his being put into prison.”\u00a0 Or, “[…] seeing an ostrich–bad; harm befalling him.”<\/p>\n The content of these dreams were not limited by propriety or societal mores.\u00a0 Dream books provided interpretations for dreams involving drinking wine, engorged genitals, and copulating with one’s mother.\u00a0 Also, some of these dreams could be quite cringe worthy, such as, drinking one’s own urine or blood, or copulating with a pig.\u00a0 Counter-intuitively, the dream books considered some of these noxious dreams to have good outcomes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One cannot refer to dream books without being reminded of the dream interpretations found in the Bible, most notably those interpretations done by Joseph.\u00a0 Joseph was sent to prison where he interpreted the dreams of his fellow prisoners.\u00a0 Joseph interpreted the dream of a cupbearer:<\/p>\n So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, \u201cIn my dream, behold, there was<\/i> a vine in front of me;<\/span> and on the vine were<\/i> three branches. And as it was budding, its blossoms came out, and<\/i> its clusters produced ripe grapes.<\/span>\u00a0 Now Pharaoh\u2019s cup was in my hand; so I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh\u2019s cup, and I put the cup into Pharaoh\u2019s hand.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 Then Joseph said to him, \u201cThis is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days;<\/span> within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you will put Pharaoh\u2019s cup into his hand according to your former custom when you were his cupbearer. [Gen 40:9-13]<\/span> <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Chester Beatty papyrus has a similar dream.\u00a0 “[…] seeing himself with one greater than he–good; it means his promotion by his (own) agency.”\u00a0 The cupbearer saw himself serving the king, so a promotion or restoration of position was the expected interpretation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The cupbearer remembered Joseph as an interpreter of dreams and suggested to the king that Joseph could interpret his dream.\u00a0\u00a0 Joseph interpreted the king’s dream as foretelling seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.\u00a0 The king described his dream as follows:<\/p>\n Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream, and behold, he was standing by the Nile.<\/span>\u00a0 And lo, from the Nile there came up seven cows, sleek and fat; and they grazed in the marsh grass.\u00a0<\/span> Then behold, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly and gaunt, and they stood by the other<\/i> cows on the bank of the Nile.<\/span>\u00a0 The ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows. Then Pharaoh awoke.<\/span>\u00a0 He fell asleep and dreamed a second time; and behold, seven ears of grain came up on a single stalk, plump and good.<\/span>\u00a0 Then behold, seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up after them.<\/span>\u00a0 The thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears. Then Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was<\/i> a dream.\u00a0 [Gen 41:1-8]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Chester Beatty papyrus has some favorable interpretations that reference bovines.\u00a0 “[…] seeing a dead ox–good; it means seeing [the demise?] of his enemies.”\u00a0\u00a0 “[…] killing an ox–good; killing his enemies.”\u00a0 “[…] carving up an ox with his (own) hand–good; killing his (own) adversary.”\u00a0 And, “[…] bringing in the cattle–good; the assembling of people for him by his god.”<\/p>\n But there are also some unfavorable interpretations.\u00a0 “[…] feeding cattle–bad; it means roaming the earth.”<\/p>\n Grain is also referenced.\u00a0 “[…] seeing barley and spelt [given?] to those yonder–good; it means the protection of him by his god.”\u00a0 “[…] measuring barley–bad; it means the arising of words with him.”<\/p>\n Likewise, dreams provided predictions for harvests.\u00a0 “[…] seeing a large cat–good; it means a large harvest will come to him.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Although the Chester Beatty papyrus is far from complete, we can see that the interpretation of dreams was codified knowledge.\u00a0 A lot of questions remain regarding how the ancient Egyptians interpreted dreams.\u00a0 How did the Egyptians interpret more complex dreams?\u00a0 How extensive were these dream books?\u00a0 Did the Egyptians standardize dream books?\u00a0 How many editions were in circulation?\u00a0 Fortunately, the Chester Beatty papyrus gives us a tantalizing start to this fascinating subject.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Egyptians believed that dreams could foretell the future.\u00a0 And as such the interpretation of dreams played an important part of ancient Egyptian culture.\u00a0 In fact, the interpretation of dream persists among modern Egyptians today. The Dream Book Two so-called “dream books” have survived from ancient Egypt.\u00a0 Perhaps the most interesting is Papyrus Chester…<\/p>\nJoseph and Dream Interpretation<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Pharaoh’s Dream and the Dream Book<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What can we make of Dream Interpretations?<\/strong><\/h4>\n