The Dreams

The Oneiroi are the spirits of dreams — dark-winged children of Night, or of Sleep, who rise each night to visit sleeping mortals with their visions. Homer tells of the two gates through which they pass: the gate of horn, through which true dreams come, and the gate of ivory, through which come the false.

Dreams held a sacred power for the Greeks: they could carry messages from the gods, and at the healing shrines of Asclepius the sick slept in hope of a curing vision. The Orphic hymn to the divinity of Dreams prays for favourable visions that reveal, rather than deceive.