[144]
70. "Furthermore, is it not a fact that the
conjectures of the interpreters of dreams give
evidence of their authors' sagacity rather than afford
any proof of a relation between dreams and the laws
of nature? For example, a runner, who was planning to set out for the Olympic games, dreamed
that he was riding in a chariot drawn by four horses.
In the morning he went to consult an interpreter,
who said to him, 'You will win, for that is implied
in the speed and strength of horses.' Later the
runner went to Antipho, who said, 'You are bound
to lose, for do you not see that four ran ahead of
you? And behold another runner!—for the books of
Chrysippus and Antipater are full of such dreams—but to return to the runner: he reported to an
interpreter that he had dreamed of having been
changed into an eagle. The interpreter said to
him, 'You are the victor, for no bird flies faster
than the eagle.' This runner also consulted Antipho.
[p. 533]
'Simpleton,' said the latter, 'don't you see that you
are beaten? For that bird is always pursuing and
driving other birds before it and itself is always last.'
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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