A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.

SOMNIUM;

a Dream. Ovid puts an in∣finite Number of Dreams under the Empire of Sleep, but he takes notice of Three who were much more potent than the rest; viz. Morpheus, Icelus or Phobetor and Phantasos: The first imi∣tated Men, the second Animals, and the third Mountains, Rivers and other inanimate Things: All these Names were taken from the Greek, and they very well signifie what they intimate to us: Hereby we may know that the Grecians were those who formed both the Names of and made Distinctions between Dreams, as well as the God of Sleep. Lucian tells us, Dreams were painted with Wings, because they flew away in an Instant; Homer mentions Two Gates thro' which Dreams come to us; the one made of Ivory from whence proceeded doubtful and troublesome Dreams, the other of Horn through which clear and certain Dreams passed: Virgil in these Verses borrowed the Thought from Homer.

Sunt gemina Somni portae, quarum altera fertur Cornea, quâ veris facilis datur exitus umbris: Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephante, Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia Manes.

Lucian describes the Island of Dreams unto us in this manner.

We had not sailed long be∣fore we saw the Isle of Dreams, but obscure∣ly, as Dreams are wont to be; for she seemed to remove farther off as we drew nearer to her; at last having reached the Island we entred into the Haven of Sleep, and there went ashoar: The Island was encompassed with a Forest of Poppies and Mandrakes, full of Owls and Bats, for there were no other Birds upon it: It had a River whose Waters did not run but in the Night, and Two Fountains of standing Water; the Wall of the City was very high and of a changeable Colour, like the Rainbow: It had Four Gates, though Homer makes it to have but Two, the first looked towards the Plain of Negligence, the one being made of Iron and the other of Earth through which frightful and melancholy Dreams passed; the other Two look towards the Harbour, the one being made of Horn and the other of Ivory, which is that through which we enter: Sleep is the King of the Island, and his Palace stands on the Left-hand as you go in: On his Right-hand is the Temple of Night, which the Goddess wor∣shipped there, and afterwards that of the Cock: Sleep has Two Lieutenants under him, viz. Ta∣raxion and Plutocles, who were begotten of Fancy and Nothing: In the Midst of the Place stands the Fountain of Sence, which has Two Temples by the Sides of it; the one of Fal∣shood, and the other of Truth: There is the Oracle and Sanctuary of that God, to whom Antipho, the Interpreter of Dreams, is Pro∣phet, and has obtained this Favour of Sleep: All the Inhabitants of the Island differ from one another, some are handsome and tall, o∣thers little and ugly, these appear to be rich, and clad in Gold and Purple, like Kings in a Play, and the others poor, beggerly and all in Rags. We met with several of our Ac∣quaintance who carried us to their Houses and treated us nobly.

Prophetick Dreams were formerly as frequent as they are now rare, and so they made a Part of and were an Ornament to History, both sa∣cred and prophane. God threatened King A∣bimelech in a Dream, and made him release Sarah Abraham's Wife: It was in a Dream that Jacob saw the mysterious Ladder: The Angel appear∣ed to Jacob in Mesopotamia, and told him in a

Dream that he was the God who appeared to him in Bethel: Joseph's Dreams are well known, his Brothers Sheafs of Corn which worshipped his, and the Sun, Moon and Eleven Stars which they adored, have in a manner no need of In∣terpretation: The Dreams of Pharoah's Two Eunuchs, and the Interpretation given them by Joseph, and Pharaoh's Two Dreams after that, which were so happily interpreted by the said Joseph, were the Steps by which he was advan∣ced to the Height of Honour and Power: Gi∣deon was also instructed what he should do by a Soldier's Dream: Saul answered Samuel who was conjured up by the Witch of Endor, that he made his Application to her, because God would neither answer him, by the Mouths of the Pro∣phets, nor by Dreams; for they were the Two usual Ways they had to learn the Will of God under the Old Testament.

The Devil imitated these Prophetick Dreams, and made it a Piece of the wicked Superstition of the Heathens: Nebuchodonozor told Daniel the Dream he had had, and he gave him the Interpretation thereof, that he should be de∣throned and be for Seven Years sent to dwell a∣mong the Beasts of the Field: There were a vast many People who made it their Business to interpret Dreams, especially in Great Mens Courts. Virgil represents unto us how the O∣racle of Faunus was consulted by all the People of Italy, and the Answers were given them by Dreams; for the Priests after they had offered Sacrifice, spent the Night lying upon the Skins of the Victims, and there received those Prophe∣tick Visions in a Dream.

.... Et caesarum ovium sub nocte silenti Pellibus incubuit stratis, somnosque petivit, Multa modis simulachr a videt volitantia miris, Et varias audit voces, fruiturque Deorum Colloquio......

It was the Custom of the Ancients to sleep up∣on Skins, and the Latin Word dormire comes from thence, being derived from the Creek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, pellis: And when they sought for Prophetick Dreams, they affected to sleep upon the Skins of Victims: Lucan makes Julia Pompey's first Wife foretell him in a Dream all the Evils of the Civil War, wherein he should be engaged: Pompey despised this Dream; but it came to him thro' the Horn-gate; the Effect followed, and the Dream came to pass; but some time after when Pompey dream'd, that is, on the Day before the fatal Battle of Pharsalia, that he was admired and applauded in his Amphitheater at Rome; it was a Dream that came to him thro' the Ivory-Gate, and had nothing but a false Light in it. Juvenal speaks of the base Practices or shameful Trade drove by some Jews, who for Money sold such Dreams as were desired of them;

Qualiacumque voles Judaei somnia vendunt:

Macrobius gives the Reason of the Difference of these Two Gate, by which Dreams come to us: The Horn-Gate was very small, but transparent, the Ivory was not so. And so they are the true Dreams, when the Soul being disengaged from the Body pierces and penetrates thro' that Vail which hides the Sight of Truth from it; and Dreams have nothing that is real in them when this Vail is not transparent; the Soul then con∣tinues involved with the Obscurity of Matter.