The Character and Functions of Agamemnon’s Dream in Book II of The Iliad
Abstract
In Book II of The Iliad Zeus sends Oneiros, the god of dreams, to the sleeping Agamemnon, to give the Achaean leader a god’s command. He wants to cheat him in this way and to carry out Thetis’ request – to honor her insulted son. The naïve Agamemnon believes the forecast that he is going to immediately capture the Trojan town. He tries the morale of his warriors ordering them to return to their native country, and then he sends them to the deciding battle that costs the life of many of them. This is the result of the dream that Homer calls “fatal”.
During the night visit the sleeping Agamemnon is completely passive; there is no dialog between him and the god sent to him, that is Oneiros. The dream is factual, objective, and it does not require interpretation. It has a divine character, and Olympic Zeus is its author – it is he that the visit of the apparition depends on. It is the only deceptive dream in The Iliad and The Odyssey, sent in order to deceive the dreaming one, to bring him to ruin. This is its basic function.
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