The Role of Oracles and Dreams in Herodotus the History...
usChristina Bramanti
October 5, 2012
CLAS 20105
The Role of Oracles, and Dreams in Herodotus The History
Throughout Herodotus The History, Oracles, and dreams play an important role.
While the gods have almost no presence throughout the book, the Oracles and/or
dreams are linked to many of the major events. We first encounter the Oracles in
Book I, when Croesus asks the Oracles at Delphi if he should attack the Persians, the
Oracle replies telling him (in a very ambiguous way) that if he fights, he will destroy
a great empire (7.12). Unbeknownst to Croesus, the empire he will destroy will be
his own. However, this answer from the Oracle is one of the things that convinces
Croesus to attack Persia, in a manner jumpstarting the ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
Dreams also play a particular role in Herodotus The History. Like the Oracles,
dreams influence people to make certain decisions. And like the situations with the
Oracles, fate also plays a role. These people had these specific dreams because they
were fated to make said decisions. The dreams, possibly, were the only ways to
convince them, or to ensure that fate run its course.
So was the case with Astyages, who dreamt of his daughter, Mandane, making
water so greatly that she filled all his city and flooded...all of Asia (1.107).
Astyages immediately went to visit the Magi who were dream interpreters. Fearing
that this meant she would have more powerful offspring, he married her, not to a
Mede, but to a lesser, Persian man. However, fate would not back down. After his
daughter was married to the Persian, Astyages had another dream. ...It seemed to
him that out of his daughter s privy parts there grew a vine, and the vine shaded all
Asia (1.108). Astyages again went to dream interpreters among the Magi, who
suggested that this dream meant that Mandane who was now, in fact, pregnant would
have a child who would become king in the place of Astyages. This is the point in
the story where fate really comes into play.
Much like the story of Oedipus, attempting to control or otherwise act in a way
opposed to, fate seems to be exactly what allows for fate to run its course. Astyages
takes the child, a son, when it is born and