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The Implication of the Epicurean and Lucretian Theory of Dreams for "Falsa Insomnia in

Aeneid" 6.896Author(s): Beert C. VerstraeteReviewed work(s):Source: The Classical World, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Sep., 1980), pp. 7-10Published by: Classical Association of the Atlantic States

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7/29/2019 The Implication of the Epicurean and Lucretian Theory of Dreams for Falsa Insomnia in Aeneid 6.896

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THE IMPLICATIONOF THE EPICUREAN

AND LUCRETIANTHEORYOF

DREAMS FOR FALSA INSOMNIA IN AENEID 6.896.

In a study that appearedn 1944of Vergil'suseof Lucretian onceptsand images n the sixth bookof theAeneid, AgnesMichelsproposed hat

Aeneas' departure hroughthe Gateof Ivory (throughwhich the manessend false dreams o theworldabove)containsa significanthint as to the"scientific" explanationof the hero's passage through Hades, namelythat Aeneas'katabasis houldbe understoodas a dream-experience.' hesets the contentious problemof the symbolic meaningof the Gate ofIvoryin the lightof the Lucretian and, therefore,Epicurean) heoryoftheimaginesorsimulacra,of whichshe finds a strong ntimation n Ver-gil's description f the beginning tage of Aeneas'journey,specificallyntheentranceportalto Hadeswherethe heroseesa treewithsomniavanaclingingto it and is then confronted by monstrousapparitionsof suchmythical reatures s the Centaurs ndthe Scyllae(6.285-294).

Aeneas' departure through the Gate of Ivory, the Gate of FalseDreams,will indeed appear less puzzling and unexpected f it is com-pared to his initial encounterwithsomnia vana and phantasmagoricalmonsters,but the relevanceof Lucretius'actual explanationof dream-experienceo the symbolicalmeaningof theGateof Ivoryand especiallyto the psychological implication of falsa insomnia needs to be moreclearlyestablished. do not argue orthis relevance n purely peculativegrounds. The relevanceof Lucretianand Epicureanpsychology to theconundrumposed by Aeneas' departure hroughthe Gate of Ivory canbe validlymaintainedon the basis of Vergil'searly ntellectualandliter-

ary development, o whichthe philosophyof Epicurusand the poetryofLucretiusmadea veryconsiderable ontribution.2 n fact, as we shallsee,thereare powerful ndications ven in the Aeneid that Vergilhas not en-tirely abandoned he criticalperspectiveof Epicureanismn favour of amoremystically riented enseof life.

Many readersand critics have, of course, observedthat a broad andsuggestiveconnection s established n Book Six betweendream-experi-ence and Aeneas' supernatural enture nto the afterlife.3Above all, I

I Agnes Michels, "Lucretius and the Sixth Book of the Aeneid," AJP65 (1944) 14748.2 On Vergil's early Epicurean studies see A. Rostagni, Virgilio Minore (Rome 1961) ch.

7; for the specifically Lucretian influences on Vergil's thought and language in the Aeneid,see the studies surveyed by A. Dalzell, "A Bibliography of Work on Lucretius: 1945-1972," CW 66 (1973) 103-04; also M. Wigodsky, "Vergil and the Early Latin Poets,"Hermes Einzelschriften 24 (Wiesbaden 1972) 132-39.

3 See especially Brooks Otis, "Three Problems of Aeneid 6," TAPA 90 (1959) 176-79;also Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry (Oxford 1964) 304-05.

7

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7/29/2019 The Implication of the Epicurean and Lucretian Theory of Dreams for Falsa Insomnia in Aeneid 6.896

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8 BEERTC. VERSTRAETE

think, the descriptionof Aeneas' and the Sibyl's approachto Hades

(6.268-272),with its imagesof movement hrougha strangely mptyandnocturnalandscape, s wonderfully vocativeof dream-experience:4

ibantobscurisola subnocte per umbramperquedomos Ditisvacuaset inaniaregnaqualeper ncertamunamsub lucemalignaest iter nsilvis, ubicaelumcondiditumbraluppiter,et rebusnox abstulitcolorem.

The suggestionof dream-experience,ere and elsewheren BookSix (cf.6.285-294,alreadyreferred o) is made onlyin oblique fashion.Michels'

conclusionthat Aeneas' and the Sibyl's departure hroughthe GateofFalse Dreamsplacesthem"inthe samecategoryas thefalsa insomnia,"pressesfor a one-to-oneidentificationwhichwe should not imposeonthe richand complexallusiveness f Vergil'spoetry.Evenon the basis ofcommon-senseogic one might argue,as Austindoes in his recentcom-mentaryon the sixthbook,6thatAeneas'departurehrough he GateofFalse Dreamsdoes not necessarilyassimilatehis experience o that of afalse dream.Vergilonly suggestsa dream-aspecto Aeneas'experience,andwith hisvagueallusivenessn thisregardhe hasplacedhis ownpoeticinterpretation n a traditionwhichalreadyexistedin Romanliterature,namelythatAeneashadbeenvouchsafedan apocalypticdreampriorto

hisfinalsettlementn Latium.7However,we are still left withthe puzzlingquestionof whyAeneasis

madeto departthrough he Gate of False Dreams.A carefulconsidera-tion of the psychological mplicationof falsa insomnia is necessary ocometo meaningful ermswiththisproblem.It is not sufficientto inter-pretfalsaas "not literal,"as BrooksOtis does.8Reedobjectsquite prop-erly that this interpretation vades the unmistakablynegativeconnota-tion of falsa.9 However,his own explanationof falsa insomniais evenless satisfactory:he regards nsomniaas beingsynonymouswith umbris(6.894)and interpretsverisumbrisas trueapparitionsof the dead, forwhich the Gate of Horn,of course,servesas an exit, andfalsa insomniaas false apparitions, uch as ordinarydreams,whichare sentthrough heGateof Ivory;sinceAeneasis not a "trueapparition,"he mustdepartthrough he lattergate.'0It is hardto believethat Aeneas shouldhavetoleavethrough he Gate of Ivorybecausehe is not a "trueapparition"-

4 Michels, p. cit., 145-46, ompareshis passagewitha description f dream-experiencein Lucretius 4.453-461, on which she comments: ". . . I should think that anyone who had

everhad a nightmare r a highfeverwouldrecognizehe shadowwhich hensurroundshelight nwhichonemovesand theendlesswandering ndera lowering ky."

s Michels,op. cit., 147.6 R.G. Austin, P. VergiliMaronis Aeneidos Liber Sextus (Oxford 1977)275.7

InCicero'sDe Divinatione1.21,the Stoic Quintusadmits hat certainamousdreams

reportedby tradition reonly literaryictionsandsinglesoutAeneas'visionasanexample,ascribinghe fiction o the earlyRomanhistorianFabiusPictor.

8 BrooksOtis,TAPA90 (1959)176;cf. also Virgil,304.9 N. Reed,"TheGatesof Sleep,"CQ23 (1973)312.10 Reed, op. cit., 313-15.

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FALSA NSOMNIA 9

suchan explanation, t seems to me, makesthe Gate of Ivory ittlemore

thana convenience xit for the hero and ignoresthe pointedsignificanceoffalsa insomnia.

This significancebecomesclear f we examine he psychologicalmpli-cationof falsa insomnia in the lightof the Epicurean nd Lucretian he-ory of dreams.Unlikethe Stoics, the Epicureansdeniedany oracularormystical mport to dream-experience. his view is trenchantly tatedbyEpicurusand coupledwitha conciseexplanationof the causeof dream-experience:"Dreams have no divine characternor any propheticforcebut originate romthe influx of images" (VaticanSayings,24). Lucretiusgives in Book 4.757-826(822), 962-1036 he most extensiveaccountwe

possessof theEpicureanpsychologyof dreams.Dreamings explainedasbasically a mode of seeing and perceiving directly with the mind(animus). Not surprisingly, herefore,Lucretius'accountof dream-ex-periencefollows immediatelyupon his explanationof the workingsofthe imagination 4.722-756).4.757-764 s crucial n Lucretius'accountofhow the mind functions n dream-experience:uringsleepthe sensoryor-gans are no longeractive, while the mind is bombardedby a constantstreamof imagineswhich, provided heyare of sufficientlyfine texture,candirectly mpingeon it. The mind thus becomes ittle morethana pas-sive receptacle or the flux of imagines.In a subsequent ection (4.962-1036), Lucretiusdescribesby meansof vividexamplesdrawnfrom the

wealth of human experience how dreams are only confused,kaleidoscopicreflectionsof waking experience; hus, by clear implica-tion, he attachesno "extraordinary"mportance o them: from a scien-tific point of view, dreamsareas ordinaryand explicableas wakingbe-haviourandexperience.'1

Particularly elevant o an understanding f Vergil'sfalsa insomnia sLucretius' nsistence n 4.762-764 that since the sensory organsdo notfunctionduringsleep they cannot providethe sleepingpersonanymorewith the pre-requisite riteria or distinguishingrue from false, that is,in Epicurean terms, the real from the unreal.'2 Falsa, then, in Vergil'sfalsa insomnia (like vana in somnia vana in Aen. 6.283-284) is a genericepithet pointingto the illusoryand counterfeitnatureof all dream-ex-perience.Thus the contrast betweenthe Gate of Horn and the Gate ofIvory hinges upon a contrastbetween realapparitions veris umbris)ofthe dead and false, unreal dreams-all dream-experience eing only acounterfeitsimulationof wakingexperience.Aeneas, significantly,doesnot departthroughthe Gate of Horn, the exit for the true shadesof thedead, whichaffirms, as it were, the realityof the afterlife; instead,hisdepartureakesplacethrough heGateof Ivory,which s associatedwith

11 The belief that dreams do not have any supernatural significance but are only reflec-

tions of waking experience is the theme of a poem attributed to Petronius and obviously in-spired by Lucretius' account (PLM 121); cf. especially the first three lines:Somnia quae mentes ludunt volitantibus umbris/non delubra deum nec de aetherenumina mittunt/sed sibi quisque facit. . .

12 Subsequently, too, in his account Lucretius points to the illusory character of dream-experience with such phrases asfrustrata tenere (4.972) and discussis. . erroribus (4.997).

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10 BEERTC. VERSTRAETE

illusory dream-experience.t is almost ironical that Vergilmakes themanes, the powersof the dead, the purveyorsof falsa insomnia; t is asthough for a passingmomenta scepticalperspective uddenly akes holdon Vergil'scomplexand richlyarticulated vocationof the afterlife.

With Aeneas'departure, hen, through he Gate of FalseDreams, heSixthBookendson a note of doubt andscepticism, n whichone may de-tect a faint reverberation f the criticalrealism of the philosophyofEpicurusand Lucretius.This final note does not radically ubvertwhathas preceded,certainlynot the sublimecosmology and eschatologyof6.724-751or the lofty visionof Romandestiny n 6.756-892-but it doesmake heard an alternativevoice which, albeit brief, is too telling to be

passedover.I would finallyobserve hat elsewhere, oo, in the Aeneidthis voice ofscepticalrealismmaybe heard. In4.65-66,in the midstof the accountofDido's love-madness ndher franticendeavourso propitiate hewillofthe gods, the poet-narrator uddenlyuttersa sad exclamationover thefutilityof herefforts: heu, vatum gnaraementes!quidvotafurentem,/quid delubra uvant?... .Even morepowerfuland more psychological-ly reflective s the tragic nsight n Nisus' hauntingwordsto Euryalusn9.184-185: . .dinehuncardoremmentibusaddunt, Euryale,ansua cui-quedeus it diracupido?Suchoutburstsdo not constitute,as it were,anEpicurean-inspirednti-Aeneid,but they do hint at a strong plea for arealisticalternativeperspectiveo the heavilycharged enseof the numi-nous whichdominates he Aeneid.Thescepticalconclusionof BookSix,as I interpret t, perhaps aises hatpleamostforcefully.

Acadia University BEERTC. VERSTRAETE

ANDREW W. MELLON

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One-year appointment, July 1981-June 1982, with limited teaching duties, depart-mental affiliation, opportunity to develop scholarly research. Annual salary$17,000.

Applications due November 3, 1980. For particularsand applicalion procedures wrile:

Awards announced January 30, 1981. Dr. RikhardM. Hunt, Program DireclorHarvardUniversllv Mellon Faculiv FellowshipsLemont Library202Cambridge, MNassachusells2138

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