Le Monde des Rêves à l’Époque Hellénistique dans les Vies et les Moralia: étude sur le vocabulaire et la pensée de Plutarque

Abstract

In this contribution, we examine Plutarch’s use of dreams, paying special attention to their influence on the historical process of development. For this purpose, we analyse some of the most common terms signifying ‘dream’ or ‘sleep’ such as ὄνειρος, ὄναρ, ἐνύπνιον and ὕπνος, so that we can appreciate their semantic evolution (if appropriate), focusing on texts that make reference to the Hellenistic period. Finally, we try to shed some light on the opinion of our author about the subject.