Since antiquity dreams have fascinated people of all cultural backgrounds and have not only been proven relevant for the future of empires and religions, but also served as central motifs in the development of the world's literary masterpieces. In the classical period, the category of predictive dreams was divided into prophetic visions (Greek horamata), advice from a god (chrematismata) and symbolic dreams (oneiroi). With some fluctuation between these distinctions, as a general rule this classification still holds in medieval times (see for example John of Salisbury's distinctions between visio, oraculum, somnium, 12th century).
Prophetic visions play a significant role in the history of national self-identification and salvation. Among the many examples from the Old Testament stands out Daniel's vision of the fall of four successive “beastly” pagan empires and their replacement by a messianic realm...
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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Dreams in European Literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 March 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5776, accessed 09 June 2026.]
