Greek tradition
Snake in Greek dream interpretation
The serpent carries several readings at once in the Greek material, and Artemidorus keeps them all rather than choosing.
What this page is
What follows describes what the Greek material says about particular images, where it says it, and what the method around it required. It is not a claim that a dream about any of these things means anything, and Artemidorus's own framework holds that most dreams mean nothing at all.
The passage is at Book 2.13, and what makes it worth quoting is that he gives a reason for every reading rather than just the reading. A serpent signifies a king, because of its strength. It signifies time, because of its length and because it casts off its old skin and becomes young again. It signifies wealth and possessions, because the serpent guards treasure.
He then adds that it stands for all the gods to whom it is sacred, and names them: Zeus, Sabazius, Helios, Demeter, Kore, Hecate, Asclepius. So the same creature that reads as a king in one line reads as a god in the next, and he does not reconcile the two.
That habit of showing the working is the thing his imitators dropped. Each meaning is derived out loud from something a snake actually does, which means you can examine the reasoning and disagree with it. A modern dictionary gives you the conclusion with the argument removed, and a conclusion you cannot argue with is not a better one.
Worth knowing
The Eden association that dominates snake dreams for most western dreamers is not in this material at all. It arrives from a different tradition entirely, and the two are routinely blended on pages claiming to report either.
What is actually recorded about dreaming of snake
Snakes are among the most reported dream animals and the most contradictory. Across traditions they carry both threat and renewal, the bite and the shed skin, and which one is active in your dream is usually decided by the fear, not by the snake.
The snake entrySources and reviewed references
2 references. What these labels mean
- 1.Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams)Historical dream record
Artemidorus of Daldis (200)
Cited for: The earliest surviving systematic dream dictionary, and evidence that dream interpretation has been organised by symbol and by the dreamer's circumstances for at least eighteen centuries.
- 2.Dreams and Experience in Classical AntiquityAcademic book
William V. Harris (2009) · Harvard University Press
Cited for: How dreams were recorded, classified and used in Greek and Roman practice, including temple incubation and the interpretive traditions around it.