The title of the thesis paraphrases the quotation »when a dream opens the way to the most perfect vision of reality« (Synesius, On Dreams, 4.134D) from the fourth chapter of the late fourth-century treatise On Dreams by the Neo-Platonist Synesius of Cyrene. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is devoted to a chronological outline of the Greek oneirological tradition. After a brief historical outline of the emergence of the Greek oneirological tradition itself, through the development of the traditions of oneirocriticism and oneiromancy, the thesis turns to philosophical oneirology. The historical outline runs from the pre-Socratic era (Democritus) to late antiquity (Artemidorus), and finally to Synesius of Cyrene. At this point, we situate the author historically and show how his work On Dreams synthesises the teachings of the previous authors that we have presented in the outline. This is
followed by the second substantive part of the thesis, in which we analyse the Neo-Platonist doctrine of the ascent of the soul in Synesius' On Dreams. After a brief introduction to the Neo-Platonic development of the concept of »ascent« (ἀναγωγή) in the authors of early and late Neo-Platonism, we focus on Synesius' association of the »imagination« (φαντασία) with the ascent of the soul through dreams. This is followed by a more detailed analysis of the »ascent« of the soul in relation to the concept of »spirit« (πνεῦµα) and the Neo-Platonic spiritual understanding of the soul, with the example of the »vehicle« (ὄχηµα) of the soul and the image of the animated soul in the Chaldean oracles.
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