Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report

Use in the book

At 985c the Athenian gathers different ways in which human beings have met with the five living kinds: sleep and dreaming, voices and oracles heard by people healthy or ill, and experiences associated with the end of life. Opinions arise privately and publicly; many sacred rites have arisen from them and others will arise. The sentence supplies a broad account of the experiential background of religion without selecting one report as a new indisputable revelation.

The opening expression calls the five living kinds genuinely existent within the account. It does not certify every particular dream, voice, or interpretation as accurate. The ensuing distinction is crucial: claims about the universe's population and assessments of a given human encounter are different. The lawgiver's refusal to alter uncertain worship rests partly on inability to know about such matters. The confidence of the cosmological scheme and the uncertainty of individual religious reports remain in tension.

The catalogue includes health as well as sickness. It should not be reduced either to ordinary waking observation or to a claim that all religious experience is pathological. Nor does the reference to life's ending establish a modern narrative of a person clinically dead and resuscitated. The Greek names the circumstance of the encounter without supplying those details. A source-faithful lexicon leaves that indeterminacy visible.

Hearing at this point belongs to human recipients of voices and oracles. It is not the mechanism by which the middle beings know all our thought in the preceding paragraph. That statement uses the verb of knowing and the noun dianoia. The two descriptions may fit a theology of communication, but they should not be merged into a literal claim that daimons listen to an audible interior monologue.

The early exclusion of prophecy and interpretation from sufficient wisdom provides another qualification. At 975c the practitioner knows what was said but has not learned whether it is true. The existence of oracular reports at 985c does not cancel that epistemic limitation. Later, Delphic oracles can cooperate with education and lawful service at 988a. Across these passages the dialogue leaves room for religious communication without making its human interpretation the whole of wisdom.

The private–public pair is important for legislation. A report becomes more consequential when a city establishes a sacred observance on its basis. The lawgiver must therefore take seriously both inherited practices and the weakness of his knowledge. This prepares the contrast with visible stellar beings, whose public availability is presented as a firmer basis for announcing neglected honors.

Places to read

1. 985cκαθ’ ὕπνον ἐν ὀνειροπολίᾳ — Encounters may occur in sleep and dreaming
2. 985cκατὰ φήμας τε καὶ μαντείας — Voices and oracles provide another channel
3. 985cἐν ἀκοαῖς ὑγιαίνουσιν ἢ καὶ κάμνουσιν — Reports are heard in health or sickness
4. 985cτελευτῇ βίου — Life's ending supplies another circumstance
5. 985cἰδίᾳ τε καὶ δημοσίᾳ δόξας — Beliefs arise in private and public
6. 985cἱερὰ πολλὰ πολλῶν γέγονεν — Numerous sacred practices arise from such beliefs
7. 985dοὐδ’ ὂν δυνατὸν εἰδέναι τῇ θνητῇ φύσει — Mortal knowledge of these matters is explicitly limited

Translation in this edition

“Voices” is the local rendering of phēmai, not a ruling that every occurrence of the family elsewhere means an acoustic event. “Oracles” translates manteiai; the earlier mantikē is the art of prophecy. The long sentence is retained to keep the chain from encounters through opinions to rites visible rather than turning the catalogue into a series of separately endorsed claims.

One condition of reception — ὑγιαίνειν (hygiainein)

ὑγιαίνειν (hygiainein)

One condition of reception. The recipients of religious voices may be healthy as well as sick. The balanced catalogue prevents treating all such reports as restricted to illness. Attested: ὑγιαίνουσιν (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Another condition of reception — κάμνειν (kamnein)

κάμνειν (kamnein)

Another condition of reception. Some encounters occur during illness. The inclusion does not establish that every religious experience is pathological or that illness makes the report certain. Attested: κάμνουσιν (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Dream experience — ὀνειροπολία (oneiropolia)

ὀνειροπολία (oneiropolia)

Dream experience. Dreaming accompanies sleep in the catalogue of encounters from which religious beliefs arise. Its inclusion describes a channel of experience rather than a universal guarantee of truth. Attested: ὀνειροπολίᾳ (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

The close of human life — τελευτή (teleutē)

τελευτή (teleutē)

The close of human life. Life’s ending is a further setting for the catalogue of encounters. The words give no detailed narrative of death followed by return to bodily life. Attested: τελευτῇ (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Human reception of voices — ἀκοή (akoē)

ἀκοή (akoē)

Human reception of voices. Hearing belongs to people who receive voices and oracles. It must not be transferred into a literal acoustic mechanism for intermediaries’ knowledge of human thought. Attested: ἀκοαῖς (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Human life’s ending — βίος (bios)

βίος (bios)

Human life’s ending. The ending of life is one circumstance in the list of religious encounters. No narrative of clinical death and resuscitation is supplied. Attested: βίου (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Five inhabited kinds — ζῷον (zōion)

ζῷον (zōion)

Five inhabited kinds. The five classes provide the framework for reports of human encounters. Their asserted existence does not independently authenticate each dream or oracular interpretation. Attested: ζῴων (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Religious beliefs arising from encounters — δόξα (doxa)

δόξα (doxa)

Religious beliefs arising from encounters. Private and public opinions arise from dreams, voices, oracles, and other encounters and can lead to sacred practices. Their occurrence is distinct from proof of each report. Attested: δόξας (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Prophetic communication heard by people — μαντεία (manteia)

μαντεία (manteia)

Prophetic communication heard by people. Oracles are among reported religious encounters in health or sickness. The noun names a communication, distinct from mantikē as the art of prophecy and from a proof of its interpretation. Attested: μαντείας (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Individual religious beliefs — ἰδίᾳ (idiai)

ἰδίᾳ (idiai)

Individual religious beliefs. Opinions can arise privately from encounters. Their individual origin is distinguished from the public formation of beliefs and cultic institutions. Attested: ἰδίᾳ (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Collective religious beliefs — δημοσίᾳ (dēmosiai)

δημοσίᾳ (dēmosiai)

Collective religious beliefs. Public opinion concerning encounters contributes to the sacred practices that a lawgiver must consider. Collective acceptance is not presented as direct knowledge of each report’s truth. Attested: δημοσίᾳ (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Institutions arising from belief — ἱερόν (hieron)

ἱερόν (hieron)

Institutions arising from belief. Many sacred rites arise from private and public opinions about encounters, and further ones will arise. The plural is contextual religious practice, not merely a list of temple buildings. Attested: ἱερὰ (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Setting of a religious encounter — ὕπνος (hypnos)

ὕπνος (hypnos)

Setting of a religious encounter. Sleep is one circumstance in which people meet with the living kinds as described. The passage does not authenticate every dream or collapse all religious experience into sleep. Attested: ὕπνον (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Heard religious utterance — φήμη (phēmē)

φήμη (phēmē)

Heard religious utterance. The plural is rendered voices beside oracles, describing what some people hear. Elsewhere the word-family can mean a report; this local sense must not govern every occurrence automatically. Attested: φήμας (985c). Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Sleep dreams voices and oracles (contextual phrase)

ἢ καθ’ ὕπνον ἐν ὀνειροπολίᾳ προστυχόντες, ἢ κατὰ φήμας τε καὶ μαντείας (985c)

The alternatives catalogue different channels of reported encounters, rather than identifying one universally authoritative method. They feed the subsequent description of private and public opinion. The existence of such reports does not itself make their mortal interpreters wise. Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Heard in health or illness (contextual phrase)

λεχθέν τισιν ἐν ἀκοαῖς ὑγιαίνουσιν ἢ καὶ κάμνουσιν (985c)

Some receive utterances in their hearing while healthy or ill. The balanced conditions resist reducing the whole catalogue either to normal waking observation or exclusively to pathological experience. The passage does not supply criteria for authenticating a particular utterance. Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.

Private belief and public institutions (contextual phrase)

ἰδίᾳ τε καὶ δημοσίᾳ δόξας παραγενομένας (985c)

The adverbs distinguish individual and civic settings in which opinions arise. The next clause traces many sacred practices to such beliefs. That genealogy explains the lawgiver’s responsibility toward established rites without independently verifying every originating encounter. Dreams voices oracles and the limits of a report.