The ''Interpretation of Dreams'' or Dream-book, written by a certain Antiphon () of

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, is an influential ancient treatise on dreams, of which only a few fragments survive. It is not certain whether the Antiphon who wrote the treatise was the same figure as the Antiphon who wrote the

Sophistic works of Antiphon The name Antiphon the Sophist (; grc-gre, Ἀντιφῶν) is used to refer to the writer of several Sophistic treatises. He probably lived in Athens in the last two decades of the 5th century BC, but almost nothing is known of his life. It has ...

, who is sometimes identified with Antiphon the Orator. The recent scholarly edition of Pendrick, however, sees it as probable that this treatise was written by the same author as the Sophistic works, as does the edition of Laks and Most. Some earlier scholars, though, including

E. R. Dodds Eric Robertson Dodds (26 July 1893 – 8 April 1979) was an Irish classics, classical scholar. He was Regius Professor of Greek (Oxford), Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford from 1936 to 1960. Early life and education Dodds wa ...

, take the view that Antiphon the dream-interpreter was a separate person. The treatise is notable, in the words of Pendrick, because it "was apparently the first ''literary'' work written on the subject of dream-interpretation—or at least the first to have achieved wide circulation".

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

refers to it, as do Diogenes of Oenoanda and

Artemidorus Artemidorus Daldianus ( grc-gre, Ἀρτεμίδωρος ὁ Δαλδιανός) or Ephesius was a professional diviner who lived in the 2nd century AD. He is known from an extant five-volume Greek work, the '' Oneirocritica'' or ''Oneirokritikon ...

.Pendrick, pp. 49–50

Notes

References

{{Sophists 5th-century BC Greek people 5th-century BC writers Ancient Greek mathematicians Ancient Greek books about dream interpretation Ancient Greek philosophical literature Divination