More on that later.
About a year or so ago, I read J.C. McKeown's delightful A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the World's Greatest Empire, a book, which - as the name suggests - offers amusing facts about the ancient Romans and interesting insights into Roman culture that the literary and material sources provide. I would recommend the book to teachers and anyone with an interest in ancient Rome. I enjoyed it so much that I can't wait to read the other books in McKeown's series on ancient Greece and ancient Greek and Roman medicine. Of course I would also recommend Anthony Kaldellis' A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the World's Most Orthodox Empire so that you may get a comprehensive overview of Greek and Roman civilization. 😉
Just by coincidence, I was going through my bookmarks in McKeown's book a few weeks ago and stumbled upon his chapter titled "Religion and Superstition." There I had marked a set of amusing ancient Roman interpretations of different types of dreams from the second-century AD writer Artemidorus' Oneirocritica (or Interpretation of Dreams). Here are my "school appropriate" favorites (translated by McKeown):
- Dreaming that one is blind is favorable for runners, since a runner who takes the lead in a race is like a blind man in that he does not see his fellow runners...Such dreams are auspicious for poets also, since they need total calm when they are going to compose, and loss of sight would ensure that they are not distracted by shapes of colors (1.26).
- Dreaming about turnips, rutabagas, and pumpkins presages disappointed hopes, since they are massive but lack nutritional value. They signify surgery and woundings with iron implements for sick people and travelers, respectively, since these vegetables are cut into slices (1.67).
- Dreaming that one is eating books foretells advantage to teachers, lecturers, and anyone who earns his livelihood from books, but everyone else it means sudden death (2.45). (I'm sure this is a favorite among Latin teachers!)
- Dreaming that one is dead or is being crucified foretells marriage for a bachelor (2.49, 53).
- Dreaming that one is eating many onions is favorable for a sick man, for it means he will recover and mourn for someone else, whereas dreaming that one is eating just a few onions signifies death, since the dying shed just a few tears, whereas those who mourn shed many (4.55).
- A man dreamed that he had a mouth with big, beautiful teeth in his rectum, and that through it he spoke, ate, and performed all the normal functions of a mouth. He was subsequently exiled from his homeland for making incautious statements. I have not included the reasons, for the outcome was easily predictable (5.68).
There is one more that I love, but you'll need to check out McKeown's book for that one!
Back to my Latin III classes...since we had just read about a strange dream in the novella, I decided to create an activity around ancient Roman interpretations of dreams, as published by Artemidorus, and have students get their own dream interpreted.
Based on my choose your own adventure activity from this past spring, I created a similar activity in Google Forms.
First, students access the form electronically through a link or QR code.
Second, students select a dream that they "had." The options are food, eating books, a bodily condition, or death. I tried to include as many pictures as possible throughout the form to aid comprehension.
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| The first page of the form |
Next, students answer various questions based on their original and subsequent responses until they get an ancient Roman interpretation for their strange dream.
How did I use this activity in my classroom?
I used this activity as a warm-up last week, the crazy, absence-filled week before our (week-long) Thanksgiving break.
Students completed the activity on their phones and submitted their results both electronically and on paper.
I provided some helpful vocabulary and the QR code for activity on my daily warm-up worksheet.
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| My warm-up worksheet |
When everyone had submitted their results, everyone in the class quickly shared their results. I also elaborated on the interpretations and why they made sense. That onion one is especially profound!
In my second period class, most students were told that they were going to get married soon, so apparently that class said that they dreamed about death! Should I be concerned?
If you'd like to try out my form to see all the options and embedded questions, click here.
