On Prophecy, Dreams and Human Imagination

Zusatztext

Synesius' essay De insomniis ('On Dreams') - written soon after 400 AD by a man who was not only a highly educated Greek intellectual but also (in the last years of his life) a Christian bishop of the city of Ptolemais (Cyrenaica) - inquires into the ways and means by which a human being, while sleeping and dreaming, may make contact with higher spheres, and it does so in the light of a clearly recognizable Neo-Platonic concept of the soul and its salvation. Synesius' thoughts are thus an important contribution of Later Antiquity on topics - the place of man within the universe and his means of communication with higher powers - that not only were of high concern for his contemporaries, but still are today for religiously- and philosophically-minded people. Besides introduction and translation (with notes), several essays shed light on the work from the perspective of various disciplines.

Autorenportrait

Donald A. Russell (Herausgegeben von) Born 1920; professor of classical literature at the Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford; emeritus fellow and former tutor in classics at St John's College, Oxford. HeinzGünther Nesselrath (Herausgegeben von) Geboren 1957; 1976-81 Studium der Klassischen Philologie und der Alten Geschichte an der Universität zu Köln; 1981 Promotion; 1987 Habilitation; 1992-2001 vollamtlicher Professor für Klass. Philologie an der Universität Bern; seit 2001 Universitätsprofessor für Klass. Philologie an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

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