# On Dreams

- Author: [Synesius of Cyrene](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/synesius-of-cyrene/)
- Latin title: *De insomniis*
- Date: ca. 404-405 (approximate)
- Source: G. Krabinger, ed., Synesii Cyrenensis quae exstant opera omnia, vol. 1 (Landshut, 1850), 312-370

- Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator
- Editions and translations: J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca 66 (Paris, 1859); N. Terzaghi, ed., Synesii Cyrenensis opuscula (Rome, 1944)
- Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/
- Passages: 60

## Krabinger p. 311

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-311
- Source: Krabinger 1:311
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Synesius's preface to On Dreams: like Plato, he hides serious philosophy under a humble subject.

### Greek text

ΥΙ. ΠΕΡῚ ἘΝΥΠΝΙΏΝ). ΠΡΟΘΕΩΡΙΑῚ᾿). Αρχαῖον") οἶμαι καὶ λίαν Πλατωνικὸν ὑπὸ προσχή- γ30 “ιατι φαυλοτέρας ὑποθέσεως κρύπτειν τὰ ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ σπουδαῖα, τοῦ μήτε τὰ μόλις εὑρεθέντα πάλιν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀπόλλυσθαι, μήτε μολύνεσθαι δήμοις βεβήλοις ἐκκείμενα ). Τοῦτο τοίνυν ἐδηλώθη μὲν ὅτι μάλιτα τῷ παρόντι συγγράμματι" εἰ δὲ καὶ τούτου τυγχάνει, καὶ τὰ ἀλλα) περιττῶς εἰς τὸν ἀρχαῖον τρόπον ἐξήσκηται, ἐπιγινοῖεν ἂν οἱ μετὰ φιλοσόφου ἢ φύσεωρ αὐτῷ δ) συνεσόμενοι.

### English translation (Claude)

On Dreams. Preface. It is an ancient practice, I think, and very Platonic, to hide the serious matters of philosophy under the pretext of a humbler subject, so that what was found with difficulty may not again be lost from among men, nor be defiled by being exposed to profane crowds. This has been shown above all in the present writing. If it attains this, and in other respects has been exquisitely worked in the ancient manner, those with a philosophic nature will come to keep company with it.

### Translation notes

- This page is the opening of On Dreams (Synesius's own preface), not part of the Dion; it is staged with the Dion only because the two works meet on this page.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 311 (Krabinger 1:311; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/311).

## Krabinger p. 312

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-312
- Source: Krabinger 1:312
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Dreams, like all divination, speak in riddles; divination is a great good, giving humans knowledge beyond the present.

### Greek text

Εἰ δὲ εἰσιν ὕπνοι προφῆται Ἶ) καὶ τὰ ὄναρ θεάματα τοῖς; ἀνθρώποις; ὀρέγουσι τῶν ὕπαρ ἐσομένων αἰνίγματα, σοφοὶ μὲν ἂν εἶεν, σαφεῖς δὲ οὐκ ἂν εἶεν, ὃ σόφον αὐτῶν καὶ τὸ μὴ σαφές. Ἀρύψαντε; γὰρ ἔχουσι θεοὶ βίον ἀνθρώποισιν... ἐν "Ἁπόνως μὲν γε) τῶν μεγίτων τυγχάνειν θεῖόν ἔσιν ἀγα-᾿. θόν" ἀνθρώποις δὲ οὐκ ἄρα ἀρετῆς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντων καλῶν ἱδρῶτα θεοὶ προπάροιθεν") ἔθηκαν. ]αντεία δὲ ἀγαθῶν ἂν) εἴν τὸ μέγισον" τῷ μὲν γὰῤ εἰδέναι, καὶ ὅλως τῷ γνωεικῷ τῇς δυνάμεως θεός τε ἀνθρώπου καὶ ἄνθρωπο; διαφέρει θηρίου. ᾿Αλλὰ θεῷ μὲν εἰς τὸ γινώσκειν ἡ φύσις ἀρκεῖ" ἀπὸ δὲ μαντεία! Β ἀνθρώπῳ πολλαπλάσιον παραγίνεται) τοῦ τῇ κοινῇ Ιδφύσει προίήκοντοι. Ὁ γὰρ πολὺ, τὸ παρὸν μόνον οἶδε"), περὶ δὲ τοῦ μήπω γενομένου τοχάδεται" ἡ δὲ

### English translation (Claude)

If sleeps are prophets, and the visions of dreams hold out to people riddles of what will happen in waking life, they would be wise but not clear — and their unclearness is their wisdom. "For the gods keep hidden the livelihood of men." To attain the greatest things without toil is a divine good; but for humans the gods have set sweat before not only virtue but every fine thing. Divination would be the greatest of goods. For by knowing, and in general by the cognitive part of its power, God differs from man and man from beast. For God his nature is enough for knowing; but from divination a human being gains many times more than belongs to our common nature. For the many know only the present and guess about what has not yet happened; but divination …

### Extrabiblical texts

- Hesiod, Op. 42 (Hesiod, Works and Days): quotation, high confidence
- Hesiod, Op. 289 (Hesiod, Works and Days): allusion, medium confidence

### Translation notes

- Synesius, On Dreams, written ca. 404–405. Krabinger's pages begin and end mid-sentence; each page is translated as far as its Greek runs. The OCR is rough: obvious misreadings are translated by sense; only larger slips and leaked notes are corrected.
- "For the gods keep hidden the livelihood of men": Hesiod, Works and Days 42. The page ends mid-sentence and the next page does not continue it; a line is probably lost.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 312 (Krabinger 1:312; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/312).

## Krabinger p. 313

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-313
- Source: Krabinger 1:313
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Homer honours Calchas for knowing past and future, and makes Zeus rule because he is eldest and knows most; the gods are minds.

### Greek text

Ἐάλχα; εἷς ἄρα ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ τῶν Πανελλήνων μόνος ἠἡπίςατο τά τ᾽ ἐόντα, τά τ' ἱσσόμενα, πρό τ᾽ ἐόντα. αὶ ᾿᾽Ομύήρῳ δὲ ἄρα διὰ τοῦτο τῇς τοῦ Ζ1ιὸς γνώμῃς ᾿δὲέξῆπται τὰ τῶν θεῶν πράγματα, ὅτι. πρότερος γέγονε καὶ πλείονα οἷδεν,. αὐτῷ δήπου τῷ πρεσβύτερος εἶναι. Ἑαὶ γὰρ τὴν ἡλικίαν εἶς τοῦτο οἶμαι συντείνειν τοῖς ἔπεσιν, ὅτι συμ- ΓΟ. βαίνει διὰ τὸν χρόνον πλείω γινώσκειν, ἐπεὶ τὸ γινώσκειν ἦν ἄρα τὸ τιμιώτατον. Εἰ δὲ τις ὑφ᾽ ἑτέρων ἐπῶν ἀναπείθεται δ) τὴν ἡγεμονίαν τοῦ Ζ]ιὸς χειρῶν ἰσχὺν εἶναι λογίξεσθαι, ὅτι, φησὶ, ΄ βίῃ δ᾽ δὄγε᾿ φέρτερος ἦεν, οὗτος φορτικῶς ὠμίλησε τῇ ποιήσει, καὶ ἀνήκοός ἔξι τὴς 1δκατ᾽ αὐτὴν φιλοσοφία,, τοὺς θεοὺς οὐδὲν ἄλλο νοῦς λεγούση. Ταύτῃ τοι προϊπερονᾷ πάλιν τῷ κατ᾽ ἀλκὴν περιεῖναι τὸ καὶ γενεῇ πρότερος, τὸν “]ία

### English translation (Claude)

Calchas alone, then, in the assembly of all the Greeks knew "the things that are, that will be, and that were before." And Homer makes the affairs of the gods depend on the judgment of Zeus for this reason, that he was born first and knows more, by the very fact of being older. For I think he directs the mention of age in the verses to this point, that with time one comes to know more, since knowing was the most honourable thing. If anyone is persuaded by other verses to think that Zeus's leadership is strength of hands, because he says "but in might he was stronger," he has dealt with the poetry vulgarly and has not heard its philosophy, which calls the gods nothing but minds. So the poet again puts "he was elder by birth" ahead of prevailing in strength, calling Zeus

### Extrabiblical texts

- Homer, Il. 1.70 (Homer, Iliad): quotation, high confidence
- Homer, Il. 13.355 (Homer, Iliad): allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Iliad 1.70 (Calchas); Iliad 13.355 ("elder by birth"); Iliad 15.165–166 ("stronger in might").

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 313 (Krabinger 1:313; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/313).

## Krabinger p. 314

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-314
- Source: Krabinger 1:314
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Zeus rules by superior wisdom; knowledge makes the wise akin to God; all things in the cosmos are signs written like letters in a book.

### Greek text

νοῦν λέγων ἀρχεγονώτερον" νοῦ δὲ ἰσχὺς τί ἀν ἀλ. λο 3") φρόνησις εἴης Ἑαὶ δετις οὖν θεὸς ὧν ἄρχειν Ὁ ἀξιοῦται θεῶν, νοῦς ὦν, σοφίας περιουσίᾳ κρατεῖ, ὥςτε καὶ τὸ '.5 βίῃ δ᾽ ὅγε φέρτερος εἰς ταὐτὸ ἡμῖν τῷ πλείονα οἷδεν ἀνακάμπτει καὶ περιΐσαται. «“Πιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ σόφος οἰκεῖος θεῷ, ὅτι πέειρᾶται συνεγγὺς εἶναι τῇ γνώσει, καὶ πραγματεύεται περὶ νόησιν, ᾧ τὸ θεῖον οὐσίωται. Αὐται μὲν ἀποδείξεις ἔσων τοῦ μαντείαν ἐν τοῖς ἀρίτοις εἶναι τῶν ἐπιτητ δευομένων ἀνθρώποι;. τον Εἰ δὲ σημαίνει μὲν διὰ πάντων πάντα, ἅτε ἀδελ.-. φῶν ὄντων τῶν ἐν ἑνὶ δώῳ, τῷ κόσμῳ, καὶ ἔξει) ταῦ- τ τα γράμματα παντοδαπὰ, καθάπερ ἐν βιβλίῳ τοῖς οὖσι, τὸ τὰ μὲν Φοινίκεια, τὰ δὲ Αἰγύπτια καὶ ἄλλα ᾿Ασσύρια" « ἀναγινώσκει δὲ ὁ σοφός σοφὸς δὲ ὁ φύσει μαθών᾽ καὶ

### English translation (Claude)

a mind more primordial; and what would the strength of mind be but wisdom? So whatever god is thought worthy to rule the gods, being mind, rules by abundance of wisdom; and so "in might he was stronger" comes round, for us, to the same thing as "he knows more." That is why the wise man is akin to God: he tries to come near him in knowledge and busies himself with intellection, in which the divine has its being. These, then, are proofs that divination is among the best pursuits of human beings. If all things signify through all things, as being brothers in one living being, the cosmos, and these are letters of every kind written in beings as in a book — some Phoenician, some Egyptian, others Assyrian — and the wise man reads them (and wise is the one who has learned from nature), and

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 314 (Krabinger 1:314; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/314).

## Krabinger p. 315

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-315
- Source: Krabinger 1:315
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The wise read the future in stars, entrails, birds and chance tokens, for in a sympathetic cosmos everything signifies everything else.

### Greek text

ὅ μὲν κατὰ συλλαβὰς, ὁ δὲ ἀθρόαν τὴν λέξιν, ὁ δὲ τὸν λόγον ὁμοῦ" οὕτως; ὁρῶσι σοφοὶ τὸ μέλλον, οἱ μὲν ἄςρα εἰδότε, ἄλλος τὰ μένοντα, καὶ ἄλλος τὰ πυρσᾷ τὰ διάττοντα" οἱ δὲ ἐν σπλάγχνοις; αὐτὰ ἀναγνόντε" ἘΒ οἱ δὲ ἐν ὀρνίθων κλαγγαῖς καὶ ᾿καθέδραι; καὶ πτήσεσι" τοῖς δὲ καὶ τὰ καλούμενα σύμβολα τῶν ἐσομένων ἕεὶν ἀρίδηλα γράμματα, φωναὶ τε καὶ συγκύρσει; ἐπ᾿ ἄλλῳ γινόμεναι, σημαντικῶν ὄντων ἅπασι πάντων" ὥ,τ᾽ ὃ), εἰ σοφία παρ᾽ ὄρνισιν ἦν, τέχνην ἄν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων, ὥιπερ ἡμεῖς ἐξ αὐτῶν, ἐπὶ τὸ ἐσόμενον συνεεήσαντο, Ἑαὶ γὰρ ὑμεῖς ἐκείνοις, ὥφπερ ἡμῖν ἐκεῖνοί γε), πάννεοι, παὶ προπάλαιοι, καὶ πανδέξιοι.. Ἔδει γὰρ, οἶμαι, τοῦ παντὸς τούτου συμπαθοῦ; τε ὄντος καὶ σύμπνου ν᾽ τὰ μέρῃ προςήκειν ἀλλύλοι;, ἅτε

### English translation (Claude)

one reads by syllables, another the whole word at once, another the whole sentence together — so the wise see the future: some by knowing the stars, one the fixed ones and another the fiery shooting ones; some by reading it in entrails; some in the cries and perchings and flights of birds; for others the so-called tokens of what is to come are plain letters, voices and chance meetings that happen with another purpose, since all things are significant for all. So if there were wisdom among birds, they would have formed an art of the future from human beings, as we have from them. For we are to them, as they to us, "very young, and very old, and all-auspicious." For it was necessary, I think, since this whole is in sympathy and breathes together, that its parts should belong to one another, as

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 315 (Krabinger 1:315; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/315).

## Krabinger p. 316

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-316
- Source: Krabinger 1:316
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Magic works through the sympathy of the cosmos's parts, like pain passing through the body or strings resonating; the world is a harmony of opposites.

### Greek text

ἑνὸρ ὅλου τὰ μέλῃ τυγχάνοντα. αὶ μή ποτε αἱ μά- ᾿ γῶν ἴυγγες αὗται" καὶ γὰρ θέλγεται παρ᾽ ἀλλήλων, ὥιπερ σημαίνεται" καὶ σοφὸς ὁ εἰδὼς, τὴν τῶν μερῶν τοῦ κόσμου συγγένειαν. Ἔλκει γὰρ ἄλλο δι᾽ ἄλλου, Ὁ ἔχων ὃ) ἐνέχυρα παρόντα τῶν πλεῖτον ἀπόντων, καὶ φωνὰς, καὶ ὕλας, καὶ σχήματα, ὥςπερ ἐν ἡμὶν σπλάγχνου παθόντος ἄλλο συμπέπονθθε, καὶ τὸ τοῦ δακτύλου κακὸν εἰς τὸν βουβῶνα ἀπερείδεται πολλῶν τῶν ὃ) μεταξὺ μὴ παθόντων" ἐνὸς γὰρ ἦν ἄμφω δώου, καὶ ἔειν Ὦ αὐτοῖς τι μᾶλλον ἑτέρων πρὸς ἄλληλα. Ἀαὶ δὴ καὶ θεῷ τινὶ τῶν εἴσω τοῦ κόσμου λίθο; ἐνθένδε καὶ βο τάνῃ προιήκει, οἷς ὁμοιοπαθῶν εἴκει τῇ φύσει καὶ γοητεύεται, ὥςπερ ὁ τὴν ὑπάτην ψύήλα; οὐ τὴν παρ᾽ αὖὐτὴν, τὴν ἱἰπόγδοον, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐπιτρίτην καὶ τὴν ) νή- 15τὴον ἐκίνησε. Τοῦτο μὲν ἤδη τῇς προγενεεέρας ) ἐεὶν ὁμονοίας" ἔστι γάρ τις, ὡς ἐν συγγενείᾳ, τοῖς μέρεσι καὶ διχόνοια" οὐ γαρ ἔστιν ὁ κόσμος τὸ ἀπλῶς ἕν, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐκ πολλῶν ἕν. Ἀαὶ ἔσιν ἐν αὐτῷ μέρῃ μέρεσι προιήγορα καὶ μαχόμενα, καὶ τῇ: τάσεως αὐτῶν͵ εἰς τὴν τοῦ παντὸς; ὁμόνοιαν συμφωνούσῃ:, ὥςπερ ἡ λύρα σύεημα

### English translation (Claude)

being limbs of one whole. And perhaps these are the charms of the magi; for things are charmed by one another just as they are signified by one another; and the wise man is the one who knows the kinship of the parts of the cosmos. He draws one thing through another, holding present pledges of things very far away — voices, materials and figures — just as in us, when one organ suffers, another suffers with it, and the pain in a finger settles in the groin while many parts between feel nothing; for both belonged to one living being, and they have something more toward each other than toward others. So to some god among those within the cosmos a stone from here and a herb belong, by which, sharing its passion, he yields to nature and is enchanted — as one who plucks the lowest string sets in motion not the string next to it, a ninth above, but the fourth and the highest. This already belongs to the more original concord; for among the parts, as in a family, there is also discord. The cosmos is not simply one, but one out of many; there are parts in it friendly to other parts and parts at war, and their strife agrees in the concord of the whole, as the lyre is a system

### Translation notes

- The passage describes pagan magical theory as Synesius's argument requires; it is translated as written.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 316 (Krabinger 1:316; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/316).

## Krabinger p. 317

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-317
- Source: Krabinger 1:317
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Divination and magic work only within the cosmos; the divine mind beyond it cannot be charmed.

### Greek text

φθόγγων ἱεὶν ἀντιφώνων τε καὶ συμφώνων " τὸ δὲ ἐξ ἀντικειμένων ἕν ἁρμονία καὶ λύρας καὶ κόσμου. ᾿Αρχιμήδης μὲν οὖν ἢ) ὁ Σικελὸς ὕτει χωρίον ἔξω τῆς γῆ,. ὡς ἑαυτὸν ἀντιταλαντεύσων ὅλῃ τῇ γῆ ἐν θαύτῃῇ γὰρ ὧν, οὐκ ἔχειν ὃ ἔφη δύναμιν πρὸς αὐτήν". ὁ δὲ ὁτιοῦν περὶ τὴν φύσιν τοῦ κόσμου σοφὸς, ἔξω τεθεὶς, οὐκ ἄν ἔτ᾽ ἔχοι τῇ σοφίᾳ τι χρήσασθαι" αὐτῷ Β γὰρ ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν χρῆται. “]ιεσπασμένης οὖν τῇς συνεχείας μάτην ἂν ἴδοι, καὶ ἄψυχα ἄν κατασημαίνοιτο ὃ) σύηβολα. Ἑαὶ ὅσον γὰρ’ ἔξω τοῦ κόσμου θεῖόν ἔσιν,, ἅπαν ἱεὶν ἀγούτευτον δ)" ᾿ ὁ δ᾽ ἀφήμενο; οὐκ ἀλεγίδει, Οὐδ᾽ ὄθεται. Ἢ γὰρ νοῦ φύσις ἀμείλικτος" τὸ δὲ παθυτικόν ἕξι τὸ θελγόμενον. Τὸ μὲν δὴ πλάτος; ἵν τε μαντείαις καὶ

### English translation (Claude)

of sounds both dissonant and consonant; and the one out of opposites is the harmony of both lyre and cosmos. Archimedes of Sicily asked for a place outside the earth so that he could balance himself against the whole earth; for being on it, he said, he had no power against it. But whoever is wise in anything concerning the nature of the cosmos, if he were set outside it, could no longer make any use of his wisdom; for he uses the cosmos against itself. Were its continuity torn apart, he would look in vain, and the tokens would signify lifelessly. And whatever is divine outside the cosmos is all beyond the reach of spells: "he sits apart and does not care nor heed." For the nature of mind is inexorable; it is what can be acted upon that is charmed. The scope in divinations and

### Extrabiblical texts

- Homer, Il. 15.106-107 (Homer, Iliad): quotation, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Archimedes' "give me a place to stand"; the quotation is Iliad 15.106–107 (of Zeus).

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 317 (Krabinger 1:317; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/317).

## Krabinger p. 318

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-318
- Source: Krabinger 1:318
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Synesius sets aside religious rites, as the law requires, and turns to dream divination, whose obscurity it shares with Apollo's oracles.

### Greek text

τελεταῖς ἡὶ τῶν ἐν κόσμῳ παρέχεται πληθὺς καὶ συγγέ- Ὁ νειὰ " διασάντων μὲν. ἡ πληθύ," ἑνὸς δὲ ὄντων συγγίνεια. Καὶ τελετὰς μὲν, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ ὁ λόγος κινείτω, νόμῳ πολιτείας πειθόμενος" μαντικὴν δὲ ἀνεμέσηὅτον ἀποδέξασθαι. Ἑαὶ δὴ τὸ ὅλον αὐτῇς ἐκ τῶν ἑνόντῶν ἐγκεκωμίαεαι. Τὸ δὲ νῦν ἔχον ἔει τὴν ἀρίτην ἀποτεμόμενον ἐἐμφιλοχωρῇσαι τῷ περὶ αὐτὴν σκέμματι, χαρακτῆρα 'κοινὸν ἐπὶ πάσαις ἔχοντα τὴν ἀσάφειαν, ὠϊ μηδεμιᾶς ἀξιοῦν ἔλεγχον εὖ εἶναι τὸ ἐν ὁλοκλήρῳ τῇ. φίσει. θεωρούμενον.᾽ Ὁ δὲ λόγος ἐδείκνυ καὶ τοῦτο σεμνὸν, Ὦ ὥιπερ ἐν τελεταῖς τὸ ἀπόῤῥητον. ᾿Οὕτως οὐδὲ τὰ χρυξήρια πᾶσι συνετὰ φθέγγεται, “καὶ “οξίας ἐκεῖθεν ὁ Πυθοὶῖ χρησμῳδος, ὅτι τὸ ξύλινον τεῖχος ") ὃ τοῖς ᾽49ηναίοις ὁ θεὸρ ἐδίδου σωτήριον, μάτην ἂν ἤκουσεν ἐκκλυσιάξων ὁ δῆμος, εἰ μὴ Θεμιςοκλῆ; ἀνέγνω τοῦ χρῃσμοῦ τὴν διάνοιαν. “Ὥςτε οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθά γε ἀπόβλῃ: τος ἡ διὰ τῶν ὕπνων ἂν εἴρ μαντεία, 'κοινὴν ἔχουσα πρός τε τὰ ἄλλα καὶ πρὸς τοὺς χρησμοὺς τὴν ἐπίκρυψιν. ᾿Επιθετέον δὲ μάλιτα μαθήδεων ταύτῃ ") ὅτι παρ "124 ἡμῶν αὔτῃ, καὶ ἔνδοθεν, καὶ ἰδίᾳ τῇς ἑκάτου ψυχῇ. ΝΝοῦ, μὲν γὰρ ἕχει τὰ εἴδη τῶν ὄντων, ἀρχαία φι.,

### English translation (Claude)

rites is provided by the multitude and the kinship of things in the cosmos — the multitude of things set apart, the kinship of things that are one. Rites my discourse must not touch, obeying the law of the state; but it is blameless to accept divination, and its whole range has been praised from what lies to hand. For now it is right to set apart the best kind and linger over the inquiry into it — a kind which has unclearness as a character common to all, so that we need not refute any of them, since what is seen in nature as a whole is well. And the argument showed this too to be solemn, like the ineffable in rites. So the oracles do not speak intelligibly to everyone; and as for Loxias, the oracle-singer at Pytho, the people in their assembly would have heard in vain that the wooden wall the god gave the Athenians would save them, had not Themistocles read the meaning of the oracle. So not even on this ground would divination through sleep be rejected, since it shares its concealment with the others and with the oracles. Above all, one must add this to its teaching: that it comes from us, from within, and is peculiar to each one's soul. Mind holds the forms of the things that are, says the ancient philosophy;

### Extrabiblical texts

- Herodotus, Hist. 7.141-143 (Herodotus, Histories): allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- The wooden-wall oracle and Themistocles: Herodotus, Histories 7.141–143. Synesius's reticence about rites reflects the imperial laws against pagan sacrifice.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 318 (Krabinger 1:318; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/318).

## Krabinger p. 319

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-319
- Source: Krabinger 1:319
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The soul contains the forms of all that comes to be and projects some onto the imagination, which has its own inner senses.

### Greek text

Ἀοσοφία φησί" προιθείημεν δ'. ἂν ἡμεῖς, ὅτι καὶ τῶν. γινομένων ψυχῇ, ἐπειδὴ λόγος ἐεὶ τῷ πρὸς ψυχῆν,: διτίς τῷ ὄντι πρὸς. τὸ γινόμενον: ᾿Εναλλαξ οὖν πρῶτον πρὸς τρίτον καὶ δεύτερον πρὸς τέταρτον" καὶ ἀνάπαλιν δ᾽ λαβόντες, οὐδὲν ἦττον ἂν ἀληθεύοιμεν. ὅροις ἐπισήμης ἑπόμενοι. Οὕτω, ἂν ἀποδεδειγμένον εἴη τὸ ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν ἀξιούμενον, ὅτι - τὰ εἴδη τῶν γινομένων “ἔχει ψυχήν Β. Ἔχει μὲν οὖν πάντα, προβάλλει δὲ τὰ προιἤκοντα καὶ ἐνοπτρίξει τὴν φαντασίαν, δι᾽ ὑε' τύν' ἀντίληψιν Ἰθτῶν ἐκεῖ μενόντων ἴσχει τὸ ἃῶον. “Ὥγπερ οὖν οὐδὲ τοῦ νοῦ τῶν ἐνεργειῶν. ἐπαῖομεν, πρὶν τῷ 'κοινῷ “τὴν ἐπιτατικὴν δύναμιν ἀπαγγεῖλαι; καὶ τὸ μὴ. εἰς ἐκείνην ἧκον λανθάνει τὸ. δῶον, οὕτως οὐδὲ τῶν ἕν τῇ. πρώτῇ ψΨύχῃῇ τὴν ἀντίληψιν ἴσχομεν, ᾿πρὶν εεἰς φαντασίαν ἥκειν αὐτῶν ἐκμάγιϊα, Καὶ ἔοικεν αὔτη ξωΐ τις εἶναι“) : μιπρὸν ὑποβᾶσα καὶ ἐν ἰδιότηὶ φύσεως 'φάσαν Αἰσθη-α τήριά γέ τοι πάρεστι κατ᾽. αὐτήν. 'Κἀὶ γὰρ χρώματὰ ὁρῶμεν, καὶ ψόφων ἀκούομεν, καὶ ἀφῇς πληκτικω-

### English translation (Claude)

and we would add that soul holds the forms of the things that come to be, since what mind is to soul, that being is to becoming. Alternately, then, first to third and second to fourth; and taking it inversely we would be no less right, following the rules of science. So what we maintain would be proved: that the soul holds the forms of the things that come to be. It holds them all, then, but projects those that are fitting and mirrors them on the imagination, through which the living being perceives things that remain within. Just as we do not perceive the activities of mind before the attentive power reports them to the common sense, and whatever does not reach it escapes the living being, so neither do we perceive what is in the primary soul before its impressions reach the imagination. And this imagination seems to be a kind of life that has stepped down a little and come into a nature of its own. Sense-organs at least are present in it: we see colours and hear sounds and have the most striking perceptions by touch,

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 319 (Krabinger 1:319; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/319).

## Krabinger p. 320

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-320
- Source: Krabinger 1:320
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Through dream-imagination people meet the gods, find treasures, become poets, are healed, and may even rise to the highest vision.

### Greek text

τάτην ἀντίληψιν ἴσχομεν, ἀνενεῤγήτων ὄντων τῶν ὀργανικῶν μορίων τοῦ σώματο. αὶ μή ποτε ἱερώτερον τοῦτο γένος αἰσθήσεων. Ἠατ᾽ αὐτό γέ τοι) καὶ θεοῖς τὰ πολλὰ συγγιψόμεθα καὶ νουτεθοῦσι καὶ χρῶσι καὶ τἄλλα προμηθουμένοι. “Ὥςτε εἰ μέν τῳ γέγονε θησαυρὸς ὕπνου δῶρον, οὐκ ἐν θαυματοῖ; ἄγω "ἢ οὐδ᾽ εἴ τις καταδαρθὼν ἄμουσο;:, ἔπειτα ἐντυχὼν ὄναρ χαῖ, ἩΙούσαιξ, καὶ τὰ μὲν εἰπὼν, τὰ δὲ ἀκούσας, ποιῃτής ἔτι δεξιὸς, ὥιπερ ὁ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς χρόνος ἦνεγ- 1θκεν, οὐδὲ τοῦτο τῶν λίαν ἱεὶ παραδόξων. ᾿Εῶ δ᾽ ἔγωγε καὶ ἐπιβουλὰς καταμηνυθείσας, καὶ ὅσοις ὕπνος ἰατρὸς ἐξάντῃ τὴν νόσον ἐποίησεν. ᾿Α4λλ᾽ ὅταν εἰς τὰς τελεωτάτας τῶν ὄντων ἐποψίας ὁδὸν ἀνοίξῃ τῷ Ψυχῦ τῦ μὴ ὁρεχθεῖΐσῃ ποτὲ, μηδὲ εἰς νοῦν βαλομένῃ 15τὴν ἄνοδον, τοῦτο ἂν εἴη τὸ ἐν τοῖς οὖσι κορυφαιότατον, φύσεως ὑπερκῦψαι καὶ συνάψαι τῷ νοητῷ τὸν ἐς τοσοῦτο πεπλανημένον, ὧς μὴ ὅθεν ἦλθεν εἰδέναι.

### English translation (Claude)

while the organic parts of the body are inactive. And perhaps this kind of sensation is more sacred. Through it, at any rate, we often meet with gods, who advise us, give us oracles, and take thought for us in other ways. So if someone has received a treasure as a gift of sleep, I do not count it among marvels; nor if a man fell asleep unmusical and then, meeting the Muses in a dream, speaking and hearing, became a skilled poet, as has happened in our time — not even this is very strange. I pass over plots revealed, and those whom sleep, as physician, has rid of disease. But when it opens a road to the most perfect visions of beings for a soul that never longed for the ascent nor even thought of it, this would be the supreme thing among beings: to rise above nature and to join to the intelligible one who has wandered so far as not to know where he came from.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 320 (Krabinger 1:320; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/320).

## Krabinger p. 321

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-321
- Source: Krabinger 1:321
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The Chaldaean Oracles confirm that some receive divine light by teaching and others in sleep.

### Greek text

Εἰ δὲ τις μέγα μὲν οἴεται τὴν ἀναγωγὴν }), φαντασίᾳ δὲ ἀπιτεῖ, μή τοι καὶ κατ᾽ αὐτήν ποτε πορισθῆναι τὴν εὐδαΐιονα συναφὴν, ἀκουσάτω τῶν ἱερῶν.λογίων, ἃ λέγει περὶ διαφόρων ὁδῶν. Μετὰ δὴ) τὸν Ἔ ὅλον κατάλογον τῶν οἴκοθεν εἰς ἀναγωγὴν ἀφορμῶν, παθ᾽ ὃν ἔξεςι τὸ ἔνδοθεν σπέρμα αὐξῆσαι" Τοὶς δὲ (φησὶ) διδακτὸν ἔδωκε φάου; γνώρισμα Β λαβέσθαι" Τοὺς δὲ καὶ ὑπνώοντας ἐδε ἐνεκάρπισιν ἀλκῇ. 10΄Ορᾳς ὅ), ἀντιδιέξειλεν εὐμοιρίαν μαθήσεων" ὁ μὲν ὕπαρ, φησὶν, ὁ δὲ ὄναρ διδάσκεται. ᾿4λλ᾽ ὕπαρ μὲν ἄνθρωπύς ἐσιν ὁ διδάσκων τὸν ὑπνώοντάδ) δὲ θεὸς ἐξῆν; ἕνε-

### English translation (Claude)

If anyone thinks the ascent a great thing but distrusts the imagination, doubting that the blessed union could ever be obtained through it, let him hear the sacred oracles, what they say about different roads. After the whole list of resources from within for the ascent, by which one can increase the seed within, it says: "To some he gave to grasp the token of light by teaching; others, even while sleeping, he enriched with his strength." You see how it has distinguished two kinds of good fortune in learning: one man, it says, is taught awake, another in a dream. But awake, it is a man who teaches; the sleeper God

### Translation notes

- The "sacred oracles" are the Chaldaean Oracles (fr. 118 des Places). There is no extrabiblical id for them yet; proposed in the report.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 321 (Krabinger 1:321; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/321).

## Krabinger p. 322

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-322
- Source: Krabinger 1:322
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The oracle shows dream-learning is real attainment; the learned who scorn dreams as too common prefer arts the oracles reject.

### Greek text

κάρπισεν ἀλκῆς, ὡς ταὐτὸν εἶναι τὸ μανθάνειν τε καὶ τυγχάνειν᾽ τὸ γὰρ ἐγκαρπίσαι καὶ πλίον ἐξὶ τοῦ διδάξαι. ᾿Αλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἡμὶν παρειλήφθω παρακατικὸν τῇς αξίας τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἐν φαντασίᾳ ξωὴν ἀ) δπρὸ; τοὺς ἀπογινώσκοντα; αὐτῇ, καὶ τὰ ἑλάττω, ὡς οὐδὲν θαῦμα οὕτω γινώσκειν ὑπὸ περιττῆς σοφίας προιτε- Ο τηκότα; τοὶς ὑπὸ τῶν λογίων 10. ἀποκηρύκτοι. Φησὶ "") γάρ" Οὐ θυσιῶν σπλάγχνων τ᾽ ὄθομαι τάδ᾽ ἀθύρματα πᾶντα, καὶ φεύγειν αὐτὰ παρακελεύεται.). Οἱ δὲ, ἄτε. ὄντες ὑπὲρ τὸ πλῆθος, τεχναὰς μὲν ἐπὶ τὸ ἐσόμενον ἄλλος ἄλλας ἀπολαβόντες, ἀξιοῦσιν ἐργάξεσθαι' ὀνείρων δὲ ὑπερορῶσιν, ὠς; προὔΐπτου πράγματος, οὐ μέτεςιν ὁμοτίμως ἀμαθεῖ τε καὶ σοφῷ. Τὶ αὖν, εἰ ταύτῃ σοφὸς, ὅτι τοῦ κοινοῦ πλέον τυγχάνει. Τοι γάρ τοι

### English translation (Claude)

enriched with his strength, so that learning and attaining are the same; for "to enrich" is more than to teach. Let this be taken by us as a testimony to the worth of the life in imagination, against those who despair of it, and against those who, from an excess of wisdom, think it no wonder to know lesser things in this way, having become experts in what the oracles renounce. For it says: "I care nothing for these playthings of sacrifices and entrails," and bids us flee them. But these men, as being above the multitude, each take up different arts for foreseeing the future and think fit to practise them, while they despise dreams as a commonplace thing, in which the ignorant and the wise share equally. What, then, if one is wise in this, that he gets more than the common? For

### Translation notes

- Chaldaean Oracles, fr. 107 des Places ("playthings of sacrifices and entrails").

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 322 (Krabinger 1:322; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/322).

## Krabinger p. 323

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-323
- Source: Krabinger 1:323
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The greatest goods, like the sun, are common to all; the imaginative spirit is the soul's first body and the true sense behind all the senses.

### Greek text

καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἀγαθὰ, καὶ τούτων γε μάλλον τὰ μέγιτα κοινότατα πρόκεινται" ἡλίου γὰρ οὔτε θεσπεσιτερον ἐν τοῖς ὁρωμένοις οὐδὲν, οὔτε δημοσιώτερον. ΕΠ δὲ τὸ αὐτοπτῆσαι θεὸν χρῆμα εὔδαιμον, τὸ διὰ ὅ φαντασίας ἐλεῖν πρεσβυτέρας αὐτοψίας ἐείν. Αϊσθησις γὰρ αἰσθήσεων αὔτη, ὅτι τὸ φανταεικὸν πνεύμια ποινότατόν ἐςιν αἰσθητήριον καὶ σῶμα πρῶτον ψυχόν ας ᾿Αλλὰ τὸ μὲν ἐνδομυχεὶ καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔχει τοῦ ξώου, ἣν καθάπερ ἐξ ἀκροπόλεως " περὶ γὰρ αὐτὸ πᾶσαν τὴν τῇς κεφαλῆς πραγματείαν ἡ φύσις ὠκοδομήσατο. ᾿Ακοὴ δὲ καὶ ὄψις οὐκ εἰσὶν αἰσθύσεις, ἀλλ' αἰσθήσεως; ὄργανα τῇς κοινῆς ὑπηρέτιδες, οἷον πυλωροὶ τοῦ ἔώου, διαγγέλλουσαι τῇ δεσποίνῃ τὰ θύραθεν αἰσθητὰ, ὑφ᾽ ὧν “θυροκοπεῖται τὰ ἔξωθεν αἰσθητήρια, αὶ ἡ μὲν ἅπασι τοῖς μέρεσιν αὐτῇς αἴσθησίς, ἰσιν ἐντελύγ" ὅλῳ τε γὰρ ἀκούει τῷ πιεύματι καὶ ὅλῳ βλέπει, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ πάντα δύναται" διανέμει δὲ τὰς δυνάμεις, ἄλληνΒ κατ᾽ ἄλλο, καὶ προὔκυψαν ἐκ τοῦ δώου χωρὶς; ἑκά: τη, καί εἰσιν οἷον εὐθεῖαί τινες ἐκ κέντρου ῥυεῖσαι

### English translation (Claude)

the other goods too, and the greatest of them most of all, lie open to all in common: of things seen nothing is more divine than the sun, and nothing more public. If to see God face to face is a blessed thing, to grasp him through imagination belongs to a higher kind of seeing. For this is the sense of the senses, since the imaginative spirit is the most common sense-organ and the soul's first body. It dwells in the inmost part and holds the rule of the living being as from an acropolis; for around it nature built the whole structure of the head. Hearing and sight are not senses but organs of sense, servants of the common sense, like doorkeepers of the living being, reporting to their mistress the sensible things outside, by which the outer sense-organs are knocked upon. But it is a complete sense in all its parts: it hears with the whole spirit and sees with the whole, and can do all the rest; yet it distributes its powers, one here and another there, and they peep out of the living being each separately, like straight lines flowing out from a centre

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 323 (Krabinger 1:323; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/323).

## Krabinger p. 324

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-324
- Source: Krabinger 1:324
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Inner sense is more divine than the outward organs, and the eye too deceives; a diseased imagination gives unclear dreams.

### Greek text

καὶ εἰς τὸ κέντρον συννεύουσαι, "αἰα μὲν πᾶσαι κατὰ τὴν κοινὴν ῥίδαν, πολλαὶ δὲ κατὰ τὴν πρόοδον. Ζωωδετάτη μὲν οὖν ἡ διά τῶν προβεβλημένων ὀργάνων αἴσθησις, οὐδὲ αἴσθησις οὖσα, πρὶν ἐπὶ τὴν ὅ πρώτην φθασῃ" ᾿ θειοτέρα δὲ καὶ ψυχῇ ) προξεχὴς ἡ ἄμεσος; αἴσθῃησι:. Εἰ δὲ τὰρ σωματικὰς αἰσθήσεις διὰ τὸ γινώσπειν τιμῶντες, ὅτι μάλιςα ἴσμεν ἃ τεθεάμεθα }), φαντασίαν. ἀποσκορακίδοιμεν, ὡς ἀπιεςοτέραν αἰσθήσεως, ἐοίκαμεν ἐπιλαθομένοι;, ὅτι μηδὲ ὀφθαλμὸς ἅπαντα ἀληθὴ δεί-Ο κνυσιν᾽ ἀλλ᾽ ὁ μὲν Ὦ οὐδὲ δείκνυσιν" ὁ δὲ ψεύδεται, καὶ παρὰ τὴν φύσιν τῶν ὁρωμένῶν, καὶ δι᾿ ὧν ὁρᾶται" ταῖς γὰρ ἀποτάσεσιν' ἐλάττω καὶ μείξω ταῦτα" καὶ τὰ καθ᾽ ὕδατος μείξω, ἡ δὲ κώπῃ κεκλασμένῃ προπίπτει" καὶ παρὰ τὴν ἀδυναμιίαν τὴν αὐτοῦ αὐτὸ τὸ ὄμμα: λημὼν᾽ γὰρ συγκεχυμένα καὶ ἀδιάκριτα δείκνυσι. Ἀαὶ ὅδιτις οὖν τὸ φανταεικὸν πνεῦμα νοσεῖ, μὴ ἀπαιτείτω σαφῇ,, μηδὲ εὐκρινῇ ) τὰ θεάματα"

### English translation (Claude)

and converging on the centre: all one at their common root, many in their going forth. The most animal kind of sensation, then, is that through the outward organs, which is not even sensation until it reaches the first; more divine and nearer to the soul is immediate sensation. If, honouring the bodily senses for the sake of knowing, since we know best what we have seen, we were to send imagination packing as less trustworthy than sense, we would seem to have forgotten that not even the eye shows everything truly: some things it does not show, and others it falsifies, both through the nature of the things seen and through the medium by which they are seen — distance makes them smaller or larger, things under water look larger, the oar appears broken — and through the eye's own weakness, for when it is rheumy it shows things confused and indistinct. So whoever has a sick imaginative spirit, let him not demand clear and distinct visions;

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 324 (Krabinger 1:324; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/324).

## Krabinger p. 325

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-325
- Source: Krabinger 1:325
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The imaginative spirit, the soul's vehicle, is purified or thickened as the soul grows better or worse; it is a borderland between reason and unreason.

### Greek text

δὲ αὐτοῦ νόσος, καὶ οἷς λημᾷ καὶ παχύνεται, καὶ οἷς παθαίρεται καὶ ἀπειλικρινεῖται καὶ εἰς τὴν φύσιν ἐπάνεισι, τῇι, ἀποῤῥήτου ἡ φιλοσοφίας πυνθάνου, ὑφ᾽ ἡ; καὶ καθαιρόμλενον διὰ τελετῶν, ἔνθεον γίνεται. ΑἸ τε ὅ εἰρκρίσεις, πρὶν τὸν θεὸν ἐπειαγαγεῖν τὸ φανταςικὸν, ἐκθέουσι. αὶ ὅδιτις αὐτὸ διὰ τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν βίου τηρεὶῖὶ καθαρὸν, ἑτοίμῳ δ) χρῆται, ὡς ταύτῃ πάλιν εἶναι κοινότατον" ἐπαΐει γὰρ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦτο τῆς ψυχιμπῇ; διαθέσεως, καὶ οὐκ ἀσὐύμπαθές ἔει καθ᾽ αὐτὸ, κα- 109άπερ τὸ ὀςρεῶδες περίβλημα. Ἐκεῖνο μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἸΩ7 ἀντίθεσιν ἔχει πρὸς τὰς ἀμιίνους τῆς ψυχῆς διαθέσεις. ᾿Αλλὰ τοι τὸ πρῶτον αὐτῇς καὶ ἴδιον ὄχημα ἀγαθυνομένης μὲν λεπτύνεται καὶ ἀπαιθεροῦται" κακυνο- ᾿ μένης.) δὲ παχύνεται καὶ γαιοῦται. Ὅλως γὰρ τοῦτο μεταίχμιόν ἐσιν ἀλογίας καὶ λόγου, καὶ ἀσωμάτου

### English translation (Claude)

and about its disease — what makes it rheumy and thick, and what purifies and refines it and brings it back to its nature — inquire of the secret philosophy, by which, purified through rites, it becomes divine; and the intrusions run out before the god enters the imaginative spirit. Whoever keeps it pure by a life according to nature has it ready for use, so that in this way again it is most common to all. For this spirit perceives the disposition of the soul and is not without sympathy in itself, as the shell-like covering is; for that one is even opposed to the better dispositions of the soul. But the soul's first and proper vehicle is thinned and made ethereal when the soul is made good, and thickened and made earthy when it is made bad. For it is altogether a borderland between irrationality and reason, between the bodiless

### Translation notes

- The page ends mid-sentence and the next page does not continue it; a line is probably lost in the OCR.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 325 (Krabinger 1:325; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/325).

## Krabinger p. 326

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-326
- Source: Krabinger 1:326
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The imaginative spirit spans all levels of being, from animals, where it is their reason, to daemons, whose whole being is imaginal.

### Greek text

τὰ θεῖα τοῖς ἐσχάτοις συγγίνεται.. Ταύτῃ καὶ χαλεπὸν ἔξιν αἱρεθῆναι διὰ φιλοσοφίας τὴν φύσιν αὐτοῦ, 'Ερανίξδεται γάρ τι προίῆκον, ὡς ἐκ γειτόνων, ᾿δάφ᾽ ἑκατέρου τῶν ἄκρῳν, καὶ φαντάξεται μιᾷ φύσει Β5ὶ τὰ τοσοῦτον ἁἀπῳκισμένα ᾽). Τὸ γὲ τὸι πλάτος τῇς φαντασικῆς οὐσίας ἰξέχεεν ἡ φύσις εἰς πολλὰς μοίρας τῶν ὄντων. αταβαίνει γέ τοι μέχρι δώων, οἷς οὐκέτι παρέσι νοῦς, οὐδὲ ἔστιν ὄχημα τότε θειοτέρας ψυχῆι, ἀλλ᾽ αὐτῇ ταῖς ὑποκειμέναις δυνάμεσιν ἐποχεῖται, αὐτὴ λόγος οὖσα τοῦ ἔώου, καὶ πολλὰ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν φρονεῖ τε καὶ πράττει δεόντως. αθαίρεταί γὲ τοι) καὶ ἐν ἀλόγοις, ὡς εἰφρεϊσθαὶ τε κρεῖττον" γένῃ τε ὅλα δαιμόνων οὐσίωται τῇ τοιαύτῃ ξων' ἐκεῖνα μὲν γὰρ καθ᾽ ὅλον αὐτῶν τὸ εἶναι, εἰδωλικά τε ὄντα καὶ τοῖς γινομένοις αὶ ἐμφανταδόμενα" ἀνθρώπῳ δὲ τὰ πολλὰ καθ᾽ αὐτὴν δ)

### English translation (Claude)

… through it divine things meet the lowest. For this reason it is hard to grasp its nature by philosophy; for it gathers what suits it, as from neighbours, from each of the extremes, and things so far apart are imagined in one nature. Nature has poured out the breadth of the imaginative substance over many ranks of beings. It comes down even to animals in which mind is no longer present, and then it is not the vehicle of a more divine soul but itself rides upon the underlying powers, being itself the reason of the animal, and by it the animal thinks and does many things fittingly. It is purified even in irrational beings, so that it passes into a better state. Whole races of daemons have their being in such a life, for they are imaginal in their whole being and appear in things that come to be; but in man most things by itself

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 326 (Krabinger 1:326; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/326).

## Krabinger p. 327

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-327
- Source: Krabinger 1:327
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Few rise above imagination; the soul's spirit can become god, daemon or phantom, and in it the soul is punished after death.

### Greek text

οὐκ ἀφαντάεξους ποιούμεθα, πλὴν εἰ δή τις ἐν ἀκαρεῖ ποτὲ ἐπαφὴν ἔσχεν εἴδους ἀὔύλου, τὸ δὲ ὑπερκῦψαι ὃ) φαντασίαν χαλεπὸν οὐχ ἧττον, ἢ εὐδαιμον᾽ νοῦς γὰρ, φησὶ, καὶ φρόνησις ἀγαπητὸν ὅτῳ καὶ εἰς γῆρας ἀφίκοιντο, τὴν ἀφάνταφτον λέγων. ᾿ς ὃ γε προβεβλημένη ξω φαντασίας ἐξὶν, ἢ νοῦ φαντασίᾳ χρωμένου, Τὸ γὲ τοι πνεῦμα τοῦτο τὸ ψυχικὸν, ὃ καὶ πνευ- Ὦ ματικὴν ψυχὴν προςηγόρευσαν οἱ εὐδαίμονες, καὶ θεὸς καὶ δαίμων παντοδαπὸς καὶ εἴδωλον Ἶ) γίνεται, καὶ τὰς ποινὰς ἐν τούτῳ τίνει ψυχή" χρησμοί τε γὰρ ὁμοφωνούσι περὶ αὐτοῦ, ταῖς ὄναρ φαντασίαις τὴν ἐκεῖ διεξαγωγὴν τῆς ψυχῇ! προφεικάδοντε!, καὶ [9] φιλοσοφία

### English translation (Claude)

we do not make them without imagination — unless someone has at some instant had contact with an immaterial form; and to rise above imagination is no less hard than blessed. "For mind and wisdom," he says, "one may be content if they come even in old age" — meaning the imageless kind. The life put forward is either imagination's, or that of mind using imagination. This spirit of the soul, which the blessed have also called the spiritual soul, becomes god and daemon of every kind, and phantom, and in it the soul pays its penalties. The oracles agree about it, likening the soul's existence there to the imaginings of dreams; and philosophy

### Extrabiblical texts

- Plato, Leg. 653a (Plato (works)): quotation, high confidence

### Translation notes

- "One may be content if they come even in old age": Plato, Laws 2.653a. Krabinger prints a bracketed ἡ before "philosophy" as a word to be deleted; it is left out.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 327 (Krabinger 1:327; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/327).

## Krabinger p. 328

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-328
- Source: Krabinger 1:328
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The soul's spirit, purified and dried, rises; made thick and moist, it sinks underground, but may rise again through purification and later lives.

### Greek text

συντίθεται παρασκευὰς εἶναι δευτέρων βίων τοὺς πρώτους Ἶ, τῇς τε ἀρίξῃ: ἕξεως ἐν ψυχαῖς ἐλαφρίξοντος αὖτὸ καὶ ἐναπομοργνυμένη, ) κηλῖδα τῇς χείρονος. Ολκαῖ; οὖν φυσικαῖς ἢ μετέωρον αἴρεται διὰ θερμότητα δκαὶ ξηρότητα. αὶ τοῦτο ἄρα ἡ ψυχῇ: πτέρωσις )" " τὸ τε αὐγὴ) ξηρὴ ψυχὴ σοφὴ πρὸς οὐδὲν ἄλλο τῷ Ἡρακλείτῳ τεῖνον εὐρίσπκομεν" ἢ παχὺ καὶ ὑγρὸν γινόμενον τοῖς χῃραμοῖ; τῆς γῆ: ἐνδύεται ῥοπῇ φυσικῇ, φωλεῦον καὶ ὠθούμενον εἰς τὴν κατάγαιον ὃ) χώραν" τόπο, γὰρ οὗτος οἰκειότατος; ὑγροῖς πνεύμασι. Ἀακεῖ μὲν κακοδαίμων τε καὶ ποιναῖος ὁ βίος" ἔξεςι δὲ χρόνῷ καὶ πόνῳ ὅ) καὶ βίοις ἄλλοις καθηραμένην ἀναδὺ- Ψαι" γενομένῃ γὰρ ἀμφίβιον δίαυλον θεῖ καὶ παρὰ μέ

### English translation (Claude)

agrees that first lives are preparations for second lives, since the best disposition in souls lightens the spirit and wipes away the stain of the worse. So by natural pulls it is raised aloft through heat and dryness; and this is the soul's winged state; and we find that Heraclitus's saying, "the dry ray is the wisest soul," points to nothing else. Or, becoming thick and moist, it sinks into the holes of the earth by a natural tendency, lurking and thrust down into the underground region; for this place is most akin to moist spirits. There life is unhappy and full of punishment; but it is possible, purified by time and toil and other lives, to rise again. For having become amphibious, it runs a double course and in turn

### Extrabiblical texts

- Heraclitus, fr. 118 (Heraclitus (fragments)): quotation, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Heraclitus, fragment 118 (Diels–Kranz). The doctrine of successive lives is Platonic and is translated as written.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 328 (Krabinger 1:328; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/328).

## Krabinger p. 329

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-329
- Source: Krabinger 1:329
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The soul takes this spirit as a vessel from the heavenly spheres and must strive to bring it back up, or at least not sink with it.

### Greek text

ρος) ὁμιλεῖ τοῖς χείροσι καὶ τοῖς κρείττοσιν " ἣν δα: Β νεέξεται μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν σφαιρῶν ἡ πρώτῃ ψυχῇ κατιούσα, κἀκείνης "") ὥιπερ σκάφους; ἔπιβάσα, τῷ σωματικῷ - πόσμῳ συγγίνεται" ἀγῶνα δὲ ἀγωνίξεται τοῦτον ἢ ὅ συναναγαγεῖν, ὃ μή τοι συγκαταμεῖναι" μόλις -μὲν γάρ, ἀλλὰ γένοιτ᾽ ἂν ἀφεῖναι μὴ συνεπόμενον" οὐ γὰρ Θέμις ἀπιςεῖν ἐγνωσμένων τῶν τελετῶν" αἰσχρὰ δ᾽ ἂν ἑπάνοδος γένοιτο μὴ ἀποδιδούσαις τὸ ἀλλότριον, αἰλλὰ περὶ γὴν ἀπολιπούσαι,, ὅπερ ἄνωθεν ἡρανίσαντο. Καὶ τοῦτο μὲν ἑνὶ καὶ 'δευτέρῳ δῶρον ἂν γὲ - ψοῖτὸ τελετῆς καὶ θεοῦ, φύσιν δὲ ἔχει τὴν ἅπαξ ἐγκεκεντρισμένην εἰς αὐτὸ ψυχὴν ἢ ὁμοῤῥοθεῖν, κα ἔλ-. πεῖν, ἢ ἕλκεσθαι" πάντως γε ") μέντοι συνεῖναι μέ

### English translation (Claude)

consorts with the worse and the better. This spirit the first soul borrows from the spheres on its descent, and, boarding it like a boat, it keeps company with the bodily world. And it fights this contest: to bring it back up with itself, or at least not to remain down with it. It may happen — with difficulty — that the soul lets it go if it does not follow; for it is not lawful to disbelieve this, since the rites are known; but a return would be shameful for souls that did not give back what was not theirs, but left about the earth what they had borrowed from above. This would be a gift of rite and god to one or two; but nature holds that the soul, once grafted onto it, either rushes along with it and draws it, or is drawn. At any rate it must be with it until

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 329 (Krabinger 1:329; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/329).

## Krabinger p. 330

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-330
- Source: Krabinger 1:330
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The Chaldaean Oracles warn the soul not to sink into dark Hades; the worst evil is not to feel one's own degradation.

### Greek text

κάκη! συγκατασπᾷ τὴν ἐφεῖσαν αὐτῷ βαρυνθῆναι ψυχήν. αὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἔειν ᾧ δεδίττεται τὰ λόγια τὸ νοἐρὸν ἐν ἡμὶν σπέρμα" 5. ᾿ΜΝΙγδὲ κάτω «νεύσῃ; εἰς τὸν. μελαναυγέα κόσμον, τῶι βυθὸς αἰὲν ἀπιτο; ὑπέερωταί τε καὶ “Αιδης [] ᾿Αμφικνεφής, ῥνυπόων, εἰδωλοχαρὴ;, ἀνόητοι. ΙΝῷ γὰρ πῶς καλὸν βίος ἔμπλῃκτο; καὶ ἀνόητος; Τῷ δὲ εἰδώλῳ διὰ τὴν ποιὰν τότε τοῦ πνεύματος σύ- 1θεασιν ἡ κάτω χώρα προιήκει" ὁμοίῳ γὰρ τὸ ὅμοιον ὕδεται. Ἑὶ δὲ ἕν ἐξ ἀμφοῖν τῷ συνδυασμῷ γίνεται, καὶ ὁ νοῦς ἂν ἐμβαπτισθείη ἢ) τῷ ἤδεσθαι. Καὶ τοι τοῦτο κακῶν ἄν εἴη) τὸ ἔσχατον, μηδ᾽ ἐπαΐειν κακοῦ πα- Ἰδρόντοι' τοῦτο γάρ ἱσι μηδ᾽ ἀναδῦναι ὅ) δητούντων,

### English translation (Claude)

by its badness it drags down the soul that let itself be weighed down. And this is what the oracles frighten the intellectual seed in us with: "Do not stoop down to the dark-gleaming world, beneath which lies ever a faithless depth, and Hades, cloudy all round, squalid, delighting in images, senseless." For how is a frenzied and senseless life good for mind? But to the phantom, because of the spirit's condition at that time, the region below belongs; for like delights in like. And if the two become one by their union, mind too would be plunged into the pleasure. Yet this would be the last of evils, not even to perceive the evil that is present; for this is the state of those who do not even seek to rise again,

### Translation notes

- Chaldaean Oracles, fr. 163 des Places.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 330 (Krabinger 1:330; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/330).

## Krabinger p. 331

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-331
- Source: Krabinger 1:331
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Repentance and the will drive purification; suffering loosens the soul's attachment to the world and reveals providence to the wise.

### Greek text

ὦνπερ ὁ σκίῤῥος τῷ μηκέτι λυπεῖν οὐδὲ ὑπομιμνήσκει τοῦ σώξεσθαι. αὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀναγωγὸν) ἡ μετάνοια. Ὃ γὰρ τὰ ἐν οἱ, ἔξει ἢ) δυιχεραίνων φυγὴν μηχανᾶται. Καὶ καθαρμοῦ) τὸ μέγιτον μέρος κἡὶ βούλῃὃ σις ταύτῃ γὰρ ὀρέγει χεῖρα τὰ δρώμενα τε) καὶ τὰ “. λεγόμενα" ἀπούσης δὲ ἄψυχος ἅπασα καθαρτικὴ τελετὴ, κολοβὸ; οὖσα τοῦ μεγίτου σγνθήματος. Ἑαὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῇδὲ τε κἀκεῖ") χρείαν τὴν μεγίτην τε. καὶ ἀρίσὴν τῇ τάξει τῶν ὄντων αἱ κρίσεις ') παρέχονται, τὸ λυπηρὸν ἀντεμάγουσαι καὶ τῇς ἐμπλήκτου χαρὰς τὴν Β. ψυχὴν ἐκκαθαίρουσαι" αἵ τε παρ᾽ ἀξίαν καλούμεναι συμφοραὶ μέγα μέρος συμβάλλονται πρὸς τὸ λῦσαι ἢ τὴν σχέσιν, ἣν ἔχομεν πρὸς τὰ τῇδε. Καὶ ἡ πρώτῃ πρόνοια διὰ τούτων εἰάγεται τοῖς ἔχουσι νοῦν, δι᾽ τό ὧν τοῖς οὐκ ἔχουσιν ἀπιξεῖται" ὡς οὐκ ἔεσιν ὅπως ποτ᾽ ἂν ἀποεραφείῃ τὴν ὕλην ψυχὴ, μηδενὶ κακῷ περὶ τὰ τῇδε προςκόπτουσα. “]ιὸ τὰς πολυθρυλήτου;

### English translation (Claude)

as a hardened tumour, by no longer giving pain, does not even remind one to seek a cure. That is why repentance lifts us up: one who is vexed with what he has contrives a way of escape. And the greatest part of purification is the will; for the things done and said stretch out a hand to it, and in its absence every purifying rite is lifeless, lacking the greatest token. For this reason, here and there, judgments provide the greatest and best service to the order of beings, opposing pain to frenzied joy and cleansing the soul of it; and the misfortunes called undeserved contribute a great deal to loosening the attachment we have to things here. The first providence is brought in by these very things for those who have mind, and for the same reasons it is disbelieved by those who have none; for there is no way the soul could ever turn away from matter if it stumbled on no evil in things here. So one must think the much-talked-of

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 331 (Krabinger 1:331; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/331).

## Krabinger p. 332

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-332
- Source: Krabinger 1:332
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Worldly good fortune is a trap: the soul, hired to serve the cosmos, is seduced by matter like a hired man by a maidservant, and signs itself into slavery.

### Greek text

εὐτυχίας οἴεσθαι δεῖ λόχον ἐπὶ ψυχὰς ἐξευρῇῆσθαι τοῖς ἐφόροις τῶν κάτω: “2:3᾽ ὅτι μὲν ἄν ἐξελθούσαις γέ- Ὁ νοιτοὸ πόμα λήθαιον, ἄλλος εἰπάτω" εἰρελθούσῃ δὲ εἰς τὸν βίον ψυχῇ λήθαιον ὀρέγεται πόμα τὸ τῇδε ἡδὺ ὅ καὶ μειλίχιον. Θῇσσα γὰρ κατιοῦσα τὸν πρῶτον βίον ἰθελοντὴς ἀντὶ τοῦ θητεῦσαι δουλεύει" ἀλλὰ " ἐκεῖνο μὲν ἦν λειτουργίαν τινὰ ἐκπλῆσαι τῇ φύσει τοῦ κόσμου θεσμῶν ᾿Αδρατείας ἐπιταττόντων " γοητευθεῖσα δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν δώρων τῇς ὕλης, πάθο; πέπονθε παραπλήσιον ἐλευθέροις ἐπὶ συγκείμενον χρόνον μεμισθω- Ὦ μένοις, οἱ κάλλει θεραπαίνηῃς ἐνσχεθέντες μένειν ἰθέλουσι, τῷ κυρίῳ τῇς ἐρωμένης δουλεύειν ὁμολογήσαντες. αὶ ἡμεῖς ἐοίκαμεν, ὅταν ποτ᾽ ἀπὸ βαθείας τῇς γνώμη: ῥὑσθῶμεν ἐπὶ τῷ τῶν περὶ σῶμα τε καὶ θυραίων 1ὅ ἀγαθῶν εἶναι δοκούντων, ὁμολογεῖν τῇ φύσει τῇς ὕλης, ὅτι καλή᾽ ἡ δὲ τὴν συγκατάθεσιν ἡμῶν γραμματεῖον ἀπόῤῥητον δέχεται κἂν ἀποχωρῆσαι ὡς ἐλεύθεροι ἂς.

### English translation (Claude)

good fortunes an ambush laid for souls by the overseers of the regions below. Whether a draught of forgetfulness is given to souls as they leave, let another say; but to the soul entering life a draught of forgetfulness is held out: the sweetness and gentleness of things here. For coming down as a hireling for its first life, it serves of its own will as a slave instead of a hireling. The first was to perform a service to the nature of the cosmos, at the command of Adrasteia's ordinances; but bewitched by the gifts of matter, it has suffered like free men hired for an agreed time who, held by the beauty of a maidservant, wish to stay, agreeing to serve the master of their beloved. So we too seem, whenever we are swept away from the depth of our judgment toward what seem to be goods of the body and of outward things, to agree with the nature of matter that it is beautiful; and she accepts our assent as a secret contract; and if we

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 332 (Krabinger 1:332; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/332).

## Krabinger p. 333

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-333
- Source: Krabinger 1:333
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Matter pursues the escaping soul like a runaway slave; with God's help it must endure trials like Heracles, or be dragged back and punished.

### Greek text

βουλευσώμεθα. φυγάδας εἶναί φησι “καὶ ἐπανάγειν πειρᾶται, καὶ ὡς δραπετευόντων ἀντιλαμβάνεται, τὸ γραμμιατεῖον ἐπαναγινώσκουσα. Τότε δὴ καὶ μάλιτα ῥώμης τε δεῖ") τῇ ψυχῇ καὶ ἀρωγοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ὦ; οὐ μθ δ φαῦλος ἀγὼν ὁμολογίαν ἑαυτοῦ παραγράψασθαι, τυχὸν" δὲ καὶ βιάρφασθθαι. Ποιναί τε γὰρ ὑλαῖαι τότε δὴ καὶ παρ᾽ εἱμαρμένην κινοῦνται κατὰ τῶν ἀφηνιασάντῶν πρὸς τοὺς νόμους αὐτῇ!" καὶ τοῦτο ἄρα αἱ καλούμεναι πεῖραι, ἃς ᾿Ηρακλέα τε ἀνατλῇναί φὰσιν ἱεροὶ 10λόγοι, καὶ εἰ δή τις ξεερδὶ ἐλευθερίᾳ κατὰ. τὸ. καρτερὸν ἐπεχείρησε, μέχρις ἂν ἐκεῖ τὸ σνεῦμα διαβιβάσωσιν, οὗ μὴ φθάνωσιν αἱ χεῖρες τῇς φύσεω.. Εἰ δὲ ἐντὸρ" ὅρων τὸ ἄλμα γένοιτο, κατασπᾶται, καὶ δεῖ βαρυτέρων ἀγώνων" ἀφειδεῖ γὰρ ὦ; ἀλλοτρίων ἤδη" κἂν ἀπο-Β γνῷ τῇς ἀνόδου, δίκας αἰτεῖ τῇς ἐπιχειρήσεως, «καὶ προβάλλει βίου, οὐκ ἀπ᾽ ἀμφοῖν' ἔτι τῶν πίθων,

### English translation (Claude)

plan to leave as free men, she calls us runaways, tries to bring us back, and seizes us as deserters, reading out the contract. Then above all the soul needs strength and God as its helper; for it is no small contest to set aside one's own agreement, and perhaps even to use force. For material penalties are then set in motion, even beyond fate, against those who throw off her laws; and these are the so-called trials, which sacred stories say Heracles too endured, and anyone else who strove manfully for freedom, until they carry the spirit across to where the hands of nature cannot reach. But if the leap happens within her bounds, it is dragged down and heavier contests are needed; for she no longer spares it, as no longer hers; and if it despairs of the ascent, she exacts a penalty for the attempt and casts upon it lives, no longer from both of the jars,

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 333 (Krabinger 1:333; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/333).

## Krabinger p. 334

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-334
- Source: Krabinger 1:334
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Homer's two jars of Zeus figure the two portions of matter; the soul's spirit lives in the middle and sinks with a downward-turned soul.

### Greek text

οὔ, "᾿Ομῃρος ἀποῤῥήτως αἰνίττεται μερίδας εἶναι δύο στῆς. ὕλη!" καὶ ὁ Ζεὺς αὐτῷ κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνο τῶν ἐπῶν θεὸς ὑλάρχιός ἱςι, τοῦ διττοῦ τῇς εἱμαρμένης διανομεύς, παρ᾽ Ἢν Τοῦ τὸ μὲν ἀγαθὸν οὐδέποτε ἀνεπίμικτον. ἤδη δέ τες δἀπράτου μετέσχε τοῦ χείρονος. ὮΝ “Ὅλως δὲ οἱ βίοι πάντες ἐν πλάνῃ }) τῇ μὴ κατὰ τὴν πρώτην κάθοδον ἀναδραμιούσῃ.. Θέα ω; δὴ πόσῳ τῷς μέσῳ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦτο ἐμπολιτεύεται. 'Ῥεψάση,. Ὁ μὲν κάτω ψυχῇ ἔλεγεν ὁ λόγος, ὅτι ἐβαρύνθη τε καὶ ἔδυ,, μέχρις ἐγκύρσῃ τῷ μελαναυγεῖ καὶ ἀμιφικνεφεῖ χώ-

### English translation (Claude)

which Homer secretly hints are the two portions of matter; and Zeus, for him in those verses, is the god who rules matter, the distributor of fate's twofold lot, from whom the good never comes unmixed, while some have received the worse unmixed. In general, all lives are a wandering which do not run back up by the same way as the first descent. See, then, how much this spirit lives as a citizen of the middle. When the soul inclines downward, the account said that it was weighed down and sank, until it met the dark-gleaming and cloudy region;

### Extrabiblical texts

- Homer, Il. 24.527-533 (Homer, Iliad): allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- The jars of Zeus: Iliad 24.527–533.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 334 (Krabinger 1:334; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/334).

## Krabinger p. 335

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-335
- Source: Krabinger 1:335
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The Oracles promise that even the soul's phantom, its subtle body of fire and air, may rise with it to the region of light.

### Greek text

ρῳ: ἁνιούσῃ δὲ [καὶ] συνέπεται, μέχρις οὐ δύναμις ἔπεσθαι" δύναται δὲ, μέχρις ἂν εἰς πλεῖρον τὸ ἀντικείμενον ἧκῃ. ᾿Ακουεῦ) γάρ καὶ πρὶ τούτου τῶν λογίων λεγόντων" ΣΟὐδὲ τὸ τῇς ὕλης σκύβαλον 'κρημινῷ πμενλιθνε ᾿Αλλὰ καὶ εἰδώλῳ "μερὶς εἰς τόπον ἀμφιφάοντα:. Ὀ Οὗτος δὲ ἀντίθεσιν ἔχει πρὸς τὸν ἀμφικνεφῇ. Βαΐίτοι τι καὶ πλέον τις ἂν ἐν τούτοις ὀξυωπήσειεν". οὐ γὰρ “μόνην “) εἰς τὰς σφαΐρας ἀνάγειν ἔοικε τὴν ἐκεῖθεν ἤκου- 10σαν φύσιν, ἀλλὰ εἴ τι καὶ τῇς πυρὸς καὶ τῇ! ἀέρος ἀκρόἐητος εἰς τὴν ᾿εἰδωλικὴν φύσιν ἔσπασε κατιοῦσα, πρὶν το γήϊνον ἀμφιέσασθαι κέλυφος, καὶ τοῦτο, φησὶ, τῇ πρεΐττονι μερίδι συναναπέμπει" ῦλυρ γὰρ σκύβαλον οὐκ ἄν εἴν τὸ θεσπέσιον σῶμα. [αὶ λόγον "δ᾽ ἂν ἔχοὶ τὰ κοινωνήσαντα φύσεως 1.) καὶ "εἰς ἕν συντελέσαντα ἰμήτοι Ἀ παντάπασιν ἄσχετα εἶναι, καὶ μάλιφα σἷς ἐκ 'γειτόνων ἢ χώρα, καθάπερ πὺρ ἰφεξὴ; ἐξὶ τθ ρεύιλίῳ σώμιατι,

### English translation (Claude)

but when it ascends, the spirit follows as far as it is able to follow; and it can, until it comes fully to the opposite. For hear the oracles saying this too: "Not even the dross of matter will you leave to the precipice; the phantom too has its portion in the region bright all round." This is the opposite of the "cloudy all round." One might see something more sharply in these words: they seem to bring up to the spheres not only the nature that came from there, but also whatever of the summit of fire and air the soul drew into its image-nature as it came down, before it put on its earthy shell — this too, it says, it sends up with the better portion; for the divine body would not be dross. And it would be reasonable that things which shared a nature and contributed to one being should not be wholly without relation, especially those whose regions are neighbours, as fire is next to the heavenly body,

### Translation notes

- Chaldaean Oracles, fr. 158 des Places.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 335 (Krabinger 1:335; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/335).

## Krabinger p. 336

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-336
- Source: Krabinger 1:336
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: If the lower spirit obeys the soul, it too may be purified and rise with it; the heavenly part of the soul's body certainly ascends.

### Greek text

πρείττω τοῖς χείροσιν εἴξαντα τῇς κοινωνίας ἀπέλαυσε, καὶ συνετέλεσεν. εἰς ἰλὺν σῶμα ἀκήρατον, ὥπερ ἰδιοποιηθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ παραχωρηθέντο; ἐν τῇ συνόδῳ δ κρατεῖν, τάχ᾽ ἂν καὶ τὰ χείρω μὴ ἀντιτείναντα πρὸς τὴν ἐνέργειαν τῇς ψυχῆς, ἀλλ᾽ εὐήνια καὶ καταπειθῆ,Β αὐτά τε ὁμαρτήσαντα, καὶ τὴν μέσῃν φύσιν ἀπερίσπαδὸν παρασχόμενα “᾿ τῇ τὴς πρώτῃ: ἡγεμονίᾳ, συνεξαι-' θεροῖτο ἄν καὶ συναναπέμποιτο, εἰ μὴ μέχρι: παντὸς, 10αλλά τοι διαβαίνοι τὴν τῶν τοιχείων ἀκρόκῃτα, καὶ γεύσαιτ᾽ ἂν τοῦ ἀμφιφαοῦς" ἔχει γάρ τινα, φῃσὶν, ἐν αὐτῷ μερίδα, τοῦτ᾽ ἔστιν, ἐν τάξει τινὶ τοῦ κυκλικοῦ γίνεται" ᾿Αλλὰ περὶ μὲν τὴς ἐκ τῶν τοιχείων μοίρας ταῦτα εἰρήῴσθω, καὶ ἀπιρεῖν ἕξεσι καὶ πιξεύειν. Τὴν ῖ5 δὲ: ἐκεῖθεν͵ ὅκουσαν σωματικὴν οὐσίαν οὐδεμία μῃ-Ο χαγὴ κατὰ φύσιν ἀνιούση; ψυχῇ, μὴ οὐ συνεξᾶραι

### English translation (Claude)

the better, yielding to the worse, enjoyed their fellowship and contributed a pure body to the slime; just as, made its own by what was granted to rule in the union, perhaps the worse too, not resisting the activity of the soul but obedient and docile, following along and offering the middle nature undistracted to the leadership of the first, would be made ethereal with it and sent up with it — if not all the way, at least crossing the summit of the elements and tasting the region bright all round; for it has, he says, a portion in it, that is, it comes into some rank of the circling body. But about the portion from the elements let this be said; one may disbelieve it or believe it. The bodily substance that came from there, however, by nature cannot fail, when the soul ascends, to be lifted up with it,

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 336 (Krabinger 1:336; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/336).

## Krabinger p. 337

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-337
- Source: Krabinger 1:337
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Between the extremes of light and darkness lie many regions; the purer the spirit, the truer its visions; the fallen spirit sees falsely.

### Greek text

τοῦ πτώματος ἀναςᾶσαν,, καὶ ταῖς σφαίραις ἐναρμοσθῇῆναι, τοῦτ᾽ ἔσιν, εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν φύσιν ὥςπερ ἀναχυθῆναι. ᾿Ἔσχαται μὲν οὖν αὗται δύο λήξεις, ἡ μὲν ἀμφικνεφὴς, ἡ δὲ ἀμφιφαὴς οὖσα, εὐμοιρίας τε καὶ κακο δαιμονίας τὰ ἄκρα νειμάμεναι. Πόσας δὲ) οἴει μεταξὺ χώρας ἐν τῷ κύτει τοῦ κόσμου, ἑτεροφαεῖς τε καὶ ἑπεροκνεφεῖ;"), ἐν αἷς ἁπάσαις δίαιταν ἔχει ψυχὴ μέτα Ὦ τοῦδε τοῦ πνεύματος, εἴδη τε καὶ ἤθη καὶ βίους ἀμείβουσα; ᾿Αναδραμοῦσα μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τὴν οἰκείαν εὐγέ- 1θνέιαν ἀληθείας ἐεὶ ταμιεῖον" καθαρὰ γάρ ἔξει καὶ διαφανὴς καὶ ἀκήρατος, θεὸς οὖσα καὶ προφῦτι; δ)» εἰ βούλοιτο" καταπεσοῦσα δὲ, ἀχλυοῦται, καὶ ἀοριξεῖ, καὶ ψεύδεται" τὸ γὰρ ὁμιχλῶδες τοῦ πνεύματος οὐ χωρεῖ τὴν τῶν ὄντων ἐνέργειαν δ). ΜῆΊεταξὺ 'δὲ οὖσα, τῶν μὲν ] Ιδ ἂν ἁμάρτοι, τῶν, δὲ τυγχάνοι. Γνωματεύσαι; ἄν ἡ οὕτω ὅ) καὶ δαιμονίαν φύσιν ἐν ὑἡτινιοῦν τάξει. Τὸ

### English translation (Claude)

rising from the fall and being fitted to the spheres, that is, poured back as it were into its own nature. These, then, are the two extreme lots, the one cloudy all round, the other bright all round, which have been allotted the extremes of good fortune and misfortune. How many regions do you think there are between them in the hollow of the cosmos, light on one side and dark on the other, in all of which the soul dwells with this spirit, changing forms, characters and lives? When it has run back up to its own nobility, it is a storehouse of truth; for it is pure, transparent and undefiled, a god and a prophet if it wishes. But when it has fallen, it is darkened, indefinite, and lies; for the misty part of the spirit does not admit the activity of the things that are. When it is in between, it will miss some things and hit others. In this way one might judge a daemonic nature too, of whatever rank. For the unerring

### Translation notes

- The page ends mid-sentence; a line is probably lost before the next page.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 337 (Krabinger 1:337; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/337).

## Krabinger p. 338

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-338
- Source: Krabinger 1:338
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Those sunk in matter are deceived by spirits posing as gods; a pure imagination that sees truly awake and asleep promises a better lot.

### Greek text

ἢ πέλας τοῦ θείου. Τὸ δέ γε πλάνον. ἐν ταῖς προῤῥήσεσιν ἄληκτόν ἔστι τῶν ᾿ἀλινδουμένων εἰς ὕλην, ἐμπαθὲς καὶ φιλότιμον. ᾿ Ταύτῃ γὰρ ὑποδύεται τὸ σειὅραϊον.1}) ἀεὶ καὶ θεὸν καὶ πρεσβύτερον δαίμονα, “καὶ ἐνάλλεται, καὶ καταλαμβάνει τὴν εὐτρεπισθεῖσαν χώραν τῇ φύσει τῇ μείδονι. Ἔν ἀνθρώπῳ τε οὔσῃς ψυχῇς τάξιν ἀνὮ ἐνθένδε φωράσαιμεν. Ὅτῳ τὸ φαντατικὸν πνεῦμα καθαρὸν " 10καὶ εὐόρισον, καὶ ὕπαρ καὶ ὄναρ ἀληθῇ Ἶ τῶν ὄντων Β ἐκμαγεῖα δεχόμενον, οὗτος ἂν ὑπόσχεσιν ἔχοι, τόγε ἐπὶ ε«ῷ τῷ, ψυχῇς σχήματι, βελτίονος ληξεωρ οὐχ

### English translation (Claude)

… is near the divine. But error in predictions never ceases for those who wallow in matter, passionate and ambitious; for by this means the material spirit always disguises itself as god and higher daemon, leaps in and seizes the place prepared for the greater nature. In man too we might detect the rank of the soul from this: one whose imaginative spirit is pure and well defined, receiving true impressions of the things that are, awake and asleep, would have a promise, as far as the condition of his soul goes, of a better lot.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 338 (Krabinger 1:338; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/338).

## Krabinger p. 339

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-339
- Source: Krabinger 1:339
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Nourish the imaginative spirit with intellectual attention, which refines it and draws in a divine spirit; a thickened spirit leaves room for an evil one.

### Greek text

ἥκιστα δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν φαντασμάτων, ἃ προβάλλει καὶ περὶ ἃ καταγίνεται, ὅτε μὴ ἔξωθεν ὑφ᾽ ἑτέρου κινεῖται, ἐν ὁποίᾳ διαθέσει τυγχάνει τὸ ψυχικὸν πνεῦμα θηρῶμεν, χορηγούσῃ; φιλοσοφίας εἰς τοῦτο κριτήρια, 5. ὡς καὶ δεῖ τρέφειν αὐτὸ καὶ συνεπιμελεῖσθαι, αὔτοι ποτὲ πλανηθῆναι. Τροφὴ δὲ δ) ἀρίτῃ κατὰ τὴν ἐπιβλητικὴν δύναμιν ἐνεργεῖν, καὶ καθάπαξ νοερὰν εἶναι τὴν προβολὴν τὴς δωῦῇ,, ὅσῃ δύναμις, τὰς τῶν ἀ-( τόπων καὶ λχροπετῶν φαντασμάτων ὁρμὰς προλαμβάνον- 10τα,: τοῦτο γὰρ ἔσι Ὦ πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ἐεράφθαι καὶ ἄσχετον εἶναι τοῦ χείρονος, ὅσα ἀναγκαῖα, μόνον προτομιλοῦντα. Ἰγοερὰ δ᾽ ἐπιβολὴ χρῆμα τῶν συνιξαμένων ἐπὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τμητικωτατον" λεπτύνει ἦ γὰρ ἀῤῥήτως αὐτὸ καὶ πρὸς θεὸν ἀνατείνει" τὸ δὲ γενόμε- 1ὔνον ἐπιτήδειον ἕλκει τῇ συγγενείᾳ πνεῦμα θεῖον εἰς ὁμιλίαν ψυχῆ, ὦιϊπερ, ὅταν ὑπὸ πάχους συνειληθῇ καὶ γένηται μεῖον, ἢ ὥςτε πληρῶσαι τὰς ἀποδειχθείσα! Ὦ αὐτῷ χώρας ὑπὸ τῇς διαπλασάσῃ: προνοίας ἀνθρωπον" αἱ δέ εἰσιν ἐγκεφάλου κοιλίαι" τότε τῇς φύσεως οὐκ ἀνεχομένης ἐν τοῖς οὖσι κενοῦ πονηρὸν πνεῦμα εἰςκρίνεται. αὶ τί οὐκ ἄν πάθοι γενομένῃ συνέξιος ἢ) ἀποτροπαίῳ κακῷς τὰς γὰρ ἐπὶ αὐτῷ τούτῳ γενομένας

### English translation (Claude)

And not least from the images it projects and busies itself with, when it is not moved from outside by something else, let us track down in what condition the spirit of the soul is, philosophy supplying the criteria for this — so that we may nourish it and care for it and it may never go astray. The best nourishment is to act by the power of attention and, in short, to make the projection of life intellectual as far as possible, forestalling the impulses of absurd and rash images; for this is to be turned toward the better and detached from the worse, keeping company with it only as far as necessary. Intellectual attention is the most cutting of the things that act upon the spirit; for it thins it ineffably and stretches it up toward God; and once it has become fit, it draws a divine spirit by kinship into fellowship with the soul. Just so, when the spirit is rolled up by thickness and becomes too little to fill the regions assigned to it by the providence that formed man — and these are the ventricles of the brain — then, since nature tolerates no void among beings, an evil spirit slips in. And what would the soul not suffer when it lives with an abominable evil? For the regions made for this very purpose

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 339 (Krabinger 1:339; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/339).

## Krabinger p. 340

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-340
- Source: Krabinger 1:340
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Dream divination is useful, but its greater fruit is the soul's ascent; seeking prophetic dreams leads people to sober food and a chaste bed.

### Greek text

τοῦ πνεύματος εἶναι χώρας, φύσις ἐσὶν, ἢ χείρονος ἢ βελτίονος εἶναι πλύρεις. ᾿Αλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἀθέων δίκῃ τῶν μολυνάντων τὸ ἐν αὐτοῖς θεῖον" ἐκεῖνο δὲ τέλος εὐσεβείας, ἢ ὃ τι ἀγχοῦ τοῦ τέλους. δ΄: Ἡμεῖς μὲν οὖν περὶ ἢ) τῇς δ ὀνείρων μαντικῇ 1.3 λέγειν ἐπιβαλόμενοι, ὡς ἂν μὴ ἀτιμάδοιεν αὐτὴν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιτηδεύδιεν οἱ ἀνθρωποι, χρείαν τῷ βίῳ παρέχουσαν, ἐπὶ τούτῳ τὴν φανταεικὴν φύσιν περιειργάσμεθα. ἡ Ἐκ δὲ τοῦ λόγου τὸ μὲν ἐνθάδε χρειῶδες ἔλαττον ἀναπέφηνε " καρπὸς δὲ ἀμείνων ὑγιοῖς πνεύματος; ἀναγωγὴ ψυχῇ!, ἱερὸν ὄντως κέρδος" ὧιτε καὶ μελέτῃ «ι, εὐσεβείας ἐσὶ πειρᾶσθαι μαντικὸν ἡμῖν αὐτὸ εἶναι. Ἑαΐ τινες ἤδη διὰ τὸ τοιοῦτο λιχνείᾳ δελεασθέντες προγνώσεως τράπεδάν τε ἀπὸ φλεγμαινούσης δ) ἱερὰν καὶ ἄτυφον προὔθεντο, καὶ κοίτην ἠσπάσαντο καθαρὰν Β καὶ ἀμόλυντον. Ο γὰρ ὅσα τῷ Πυθοὶ τρίποδι τῇ κλίνῃ χρησάμενος δ) πολλοῦ δεὶ μάρτυρας ἀκολασίας,

### English translation (Claude)

for the spirit are by nature full either of the worse or of the better. The one is the punishment of the godless who have defiled the divine within them; the other is the goal of piety, or something near the goal. We, then, undertaking to speak about divination from dreams, so that people may not dishonour it but practise it, since it is of use to life, have for this purpose examined the imaginative nature closely. From the argument, the usefulness here has proved the lesser thing; the better fruit of a healthy spirit is the ascent of the soul, a truly sacred gain; so that it is also a practice of piety to try to make it prophetic for ourselves. Some, lured by a greed for foreknowledge, have already set before themselves a table sacred and simple instead of an inflamed one, and embraced a pure and undefiled bed. For one who uses his couch as a Pythian tripod is far from making the nights in it witnesses of licentiousness;

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 340 (Krabinger 1:340; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/340).

## Krabinger p. 341

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/311/#p-341
- Source: Krabinger 1:341
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Seeking prophetic dreams can lead people to love and union with God; the soul joined to God sees earthly things even more clearly from above.

### Greek text

τὰς ἐν αὐτῇ νύκτας ποιήσασθαι' ὁ δὲ καὶ προιεκύνησε θεὸν καὶ προτηὐξατο. Γίνεται δὲ πολὺ τὸ κατὰ “μικρὲν συντιθέμενον, καὶ τὸ δι᾽ ἄλλο γινόμενον' εἰς μεῖξον ἀπετελεύτησεν, ἐρασθῆναι θεοῦ προϊόντα, Ὗ, καὶ ὃ συναφθῆναί ποτὲ τοὺς οὐκ ἐπὶ τοῦτο τὰ πρῶτα ὁρμή- “ σαντας. Οὔκουν ἄξιον ἀμελεῖν μαντικῇς ὁδοιπορούσῃ; ᾽) ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα καὶ παρυφιφάμενον ἐχούσης τῶν. ἐν ἀν- ᾿ θρώπου δυνάμει τὸ τιμιώτατον. Οὐδὲ Ὁ γὰρ διὰ τοῦτο ἐλάττων ἡ τῇδε χρεία τῇ συνημμένῃ ψυχῇ τῷ. Θεῷ, ὅτι τῇς ἐπαφῇς τῶν κρειττόνων ἡξίωται" οὔτε - γὰρ ἀνεπίερρεπτόις ἐξι τοῦ δώου, καὶ ἐκ περιωπῆς ἀποσκοπεῖται τὰ κάξω πολύ που τρανότερον, ἢ μετ᾿ αὐτῶν οὖσα καὶ συμπιφυρμβνῃ τοῖς χείροσιν, ὦξτε μένουσα ἀἁτρεμὴς δώσει τῷ δώῳ τὰ τῶν γινομένων ἰνδάλματα. αὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἔξει τὸ λεγόμενον, κατιόντα αὐ διικατιέναι, ὅταν ἀσχέτως ὁ κρείττων ἐπιμελῆται τοῦ ᾿ ἐν ἀνθρώ-

### English translation (Claude)

rather he worships God and prays first. Much is built up little by little, and what was done for another reason has ended in something greater: those who did not set out for this at first have advanced to loving God and at times being joined to him. So it is not right to neglect a divination that travels toward the divine and has as its companion the most precious of the things in human power. Nor is the use here any less for the soul joined to God because it has been thought worthy of contact with higher things; for it is not turned away from the living being, and it surveys things below from a watchtower much more clearly than if it were among them and mixed up with the worse; so that, remaining unmoved, it will give the living being images of what is coming to be. And this is the saying, "descending without descending," when the better cares without attachment for the

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 341 (Krabinger 1:341; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/341).

## Krabinger p. 342

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-342
- Source: Krabinger 1:342
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Dream divination needs no journey to an oracle, only clean hands and prayer before sleep; it is open to the poor as to the rich.

### Greek text

χείρονος. Ταύτην. ἐγὼ τὴν μαντικὴν ἐμαυτῷ τε ἀξιῶ Ὁ παρεῖναι καὶ παισὶ καταλιπεῖν, ἐφ᾽ ἦν οὐ δεῖ βαδίξειν συσκευασαμένου; ὁδὸν μακρὰν, ἡ πλοῦν ὑπερόριον, ὥιπερ Πυθώδε καὶ ἐξ ᾽Άμμωνος, ἀλλ᾽ ἀρκεῖ καταδαρδθεῖν χεῖρα νιψάμενόν τε καὶ εὐφημῦσαντα. Ἢ δ' Ἢ ὑδρηναμένη, καθαρὰ χροὶ εἴμαθ᾽ ἑλοῦσα, Εὐχετ᾽ ὃ ᾿Αθηναίῃ., Οὕτως αἰτήσομεν ὄνειρον, ὥπερ ἴσως “Ομηρος ἤτῃσε. Κὰν ἐπιτήδειος ἦς., πάρεειν ὁ πόῤῥω θεὸς, ὅτε γε καὶ μηδὲ ταῦτα πραγματευσαμένων. “ἑκάφοτε παραγίνεται μόνον καταδαρθοῦσι. αὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἔσιν ἡ πᾶσα πραγματεῖα τὴς τελετῆ!, δι᾽ ἣν οὐδείς πω Ὁ πενίαν ὠδύρατο, ὠς ταύτῃ μειονεκτῶν τοῦ πλουσίου. Ἔνιαι γέ τοι τῶν πόλεων τοὺς ἱεροφάνται, ὥιπερ

### English translation (Claude)

the worse. This divination I want both to have for myself and to leave to my children. For it one need not pack and set out on a long road or a voyage abroad, as to Pytho or to Ammon; it is enough to wash one's hands, speak words of good omen, and fall asleep. "She washed, put clean garments on her body, and prayed to Athena." So we shall ask for a dream, as Homer perhaps asked. And if you are fit, the god who was far off is present, since he comes each time even to those who have taken none of this trouble, but have only fallen asleep. And this is the whole business of the rite; and on its account no one has ever lamented poverty, as though the poor man had less of it than the rich. Some cities, indeed, choose their hierophants as

### Extrabiblical texts

- Homer, Od. 4.759-761 (Homer, Odyssey): quotation, high confidence

### Translation notes

- The quotation is Odyssey 4.759–761 (Penelope).

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 342 (Krabinger 1:342; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/342).

## Krabinger p. 343

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-343
- Source: Krabinger 1:343
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Other forms of divination need costly rare ingredients; dreams come to rich and poor, citizen and slave alike.

### Greek text

τῶν αἱροῦνται. αὶ δεῖ δαπάνῃς συχνῇ: καὶ τύχῃς ἢ) οὐχ ὕκιτα συγκομίσαι ρηήσσαν βοτάνην, καὶ πτερὸν Αἰγύπτιον, καὶ ὀξέον ᾿Ιβηρικὸν, καὶ νὴ “1 εἴ τι τερά-Β σιον “γῇ, ἢ ") θαλάσσῃς ἐν παραβύεῳ φύεταὶϊ τε καὶ 5. τρέφεται Ι. ᾿Ημὲν δυσομένου ᾿ὕπερίονος, ἠδ᾽ ἀνιόντος. “Δέγεται γάρ τοι καὶ ταῦτα καὶ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα “- [.Φ θυ “ περι τῶν τεχνιτευόντων “) τὴν θύραθεν μαντικήν. Πρὸς ἃ τίς ἄν ἰδιώτῃ, ἀπὸ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων ἀρκέ- Ι0σειέν; ᾿Ενίπνιον δὲ ὁρᾷ μὲν ὁ πεντακοσιομέδιμνος, ὁρᾷ δὲ ὁ τριακοσιόμέδιμνοι" ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ δευγίτῃς οὐδὲν ἧττον ὁ τὴν ἐσχατιὰν ἀπεργαδόμενοι 3, ὥσπερ ἀποξῆν" ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ πρόφκωπο; καὶ «ὁ θὴς ὁμοίως, ὅ τε ἰσοτελὴς καὶ ὁ τιθεὶ τὸ μετοίκιον. “]ιαφέρεὶϊ 1ὅ δὲ οὐδὲν τῷ θεῷ, τίς ὁ ᾿Ετεοβουτάδης καὶ τίς ὁ.. Μάνη ὁ νεώνητο!᾽" καὶ τὸ δημοτικὸν αὐτῇ, μάλα φιλάνθρωπον, καὶ τὸ λιτὸν καὶ τὸ αὐτόσκευον μά-

### English translation (Claude)

they choose their costliest public officers. And one needs great expense and not least good luck to gather a Cretan herb, an Egyptian feather, an Iberian bone, and, by Zeus, any portentous thing that grows and is reared in some corner of land or sea, "both when Hyperion sets and when he rises." For these and many such things are said about those who practise outward divination as a craft. Against such costs, what private person could suffice from his means? But a dream is seen by the man of five hundred bushels, and seen by the man of three hundred; and no less by the zeugite, and by the one who works the outlying land, scraping a living; by the rower and the hired labourer alike, by the citizen and the resident alien who pays his tax. It makes no difference to the god who is an Eteobutad and who is Manes, newly bought. Its popular character is very humane, its simplicity and self-sufficiency

### Translation notes

- The Solonian census classes and the noble Athenian clan of the Eteobutads are set against "Manes," a stock slave name. "Both when Hyperion sets and when he rises": an unidentified verse (compare Hesiod, Works and Days 339).

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 343 (Krabinger 1:343; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/343).

## Krabinger p. 344

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-344
- Source: Krabinger 1:344
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Dreams cost no time, coming in sleep we must take anyway; other divination demands cumbersome equipment and takes over life.

### Greek text

λα φιλόσοφον, καὶ τὸ μὴ βίαιον εὐσεβὲς, καὶ τὸ πανταχοῦ παρεῖναι, καὶ μὴ καταλαβεῖν ὕδωρ, ἢ πέτραν, ὃ χάσμα γῆῇ:, τοῦτο μέντοιγε θεοειδέσατον" τὸ δὲ μήτε πρὸς αἰαν πρᾶξιν ἀσχόλους ἡμᾶς διὰ τὴν ὅτοιάνδε μαντικὴν γίνεσθαι, μηδὲ ἀφαιρεῖσθαι καιρὸν ὑπ᾽ αὐτὴς, τοῦτο καὶ πρῶτον ἀξιον ἦν εἰρῆσθαι. Οὐδεὶς Ὦ γὰρ ἀπολιπών τι τῶν προὔργου. καὶ ἐν χερσὶν ῴχετο καθευδήσων οἴκαδε, συγκείμενον αὐτῷ πρὸς ἐνύπνιον " ἀλλ᾽ ὁ χρόνος, ὃν ἀνάγκῃ τῷ δώῳ δαπανᾷν εἰς τὴν Ἰθφύσιν, οὐκ ᾿ἀρκούσης ἡμῖν τῇς οὐσίας εἰς ἐνέργειαν ἐγρηγόρσεως, οὗτος ὕκει κομίξων ἀνθρώποις; τοῦτο δὴ τὸ λεγόμενον, ἔργου μεῖδον τὸ πάρεργον, ἐπισυντιθεὶς τὸ ἀΐἱρετὸν τῷ ἀναγκαίῳ καὶ τὸ εὖ εἶναι τῷ εἶναι. ᾿Αλλ'. αἴγε προγνώσεις αἱ διὰ τῶν ποικίλων ὀργάνων παραγινόμεναι; ἀγαπητὸν, εἰ. τὴν πλείω μερίδα τοῦ βίου νειμάμεναι, παραχωρήσειάν τι ταῖς λοιπαῖς ἀπά- Α σαι’ καὶ χρείαις καὶ πράξεσιν. Ὧν εἰ πάνυ πρός τινι γένοιο, χαλεπῶς ἂν εἰς αὐτὴν ὑπὸ τῇς, μαντικὴ, ὠφελοῖο " οὔτε γὰρ καιροῦ παντὸς, οὔτε τόπου παντὸς, δέξασθαι κατασκευὴν τελετῇ, οὔτε πᾶσα εὐμάρεια συμπριφίρειν τὰ ἐπ' αὐτὴν ὄργανα. Ονα γὰρ ἄλλο αηδὲν,, ἀλλ᾽ ὲ ἐφ' οἷς πρώην ἐςενοχωρήθη τὰ κολαιῤριᾶ δ» ἀπήνῃ:. ἐεὶν ἢ) νεὼς κοίλης φορτία, μεθ᾽ ὧν ἀλλα μέρῃ τῶν τελερὰς ἀπογραφεῖς ἄνδρες καὶ μάρτυρες" οὕτω

### English translation (Claude)

very philosophic, its freedom from force pious; and its being present everywhere, without occupying a spring or a rock or a chasm of the earth, is most godlike of all. That this kind of divination does not leave us unable to do anything else, and does not rob us of our time — this was worth saying first. For no one has left some useful work in hand and gone home to sleep by appointment with a dream; but the time that the living being must spend on nature, since our substance is not enough for the activity of waking, comes bringing to people, as the saying goes, a by-work greater than the work, adding what is choiceworthy to what is necessary and well-being to being. But as for the foreknowledges that come by means of elaborate instruments, one should be content if, after taking the greater part of life, they leave anything at all to the other needs and actions. And if you were wholly taken up with one of those, you would hardly be helped by that divination toward it; for not every time nor every place admits the apparatus of the rite, nor does every convenience carry the instruments for it. Only lately a whole wagon or the cargo of a hollow ship was crammed with them, together with other parts of the rites and men who recorded and witnessed them; so

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 344 (Krabinger 1:344; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/344).

## Krabinger p. 345

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-345
- Source: Krabinger 1:345
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Compelling the gods by magic is impious and has been exposed by the laws; dream divination travels with each person and no law can forbid it.

### Greek text

γὰρ εἰπεῖν ἀληθθέξερον, τοὺ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς χρόνου πολλὰ διὰ τῶν ὑπηρετησάντων τοῖς νόμοις καταμηνύσαν-ΒὮ τος, ὑφ᾽ ὧν ἐξαγορευθέντα δήμου βεβήλου γέγονε θεάμιατά τε καὶ ἀκροάματα. Πρὸς οὖν τῷ σχέτλιον δεῖναι συγκύπτειν εἰς τὰ τοιάδε, ὡς ἔγωγε͵ πείθομαι, καὶ ἀπηχθημίνον θεῷ" τὸ γὰρ μὴ ἐθελοντὴν περιἀιένειν ὁντινοῦν, ἀλλ᾽ ὠθθισμῷ καὶ μοχλείᾳ κινεῖν ὅμοιόν ἐξι βιαδομίένοις, ὃ μηδ᾽ ἐπ᾿ ἀνθρώπων γενόμε.νον ὁ νομοθέτης εἴασεν ἀτιμώρητον. Πρὸς οὖν ἅπασι τούτοις, ἅπερ ἰεὶ χαλεπὰ, τοῖς οὕτω μετιοῦσι τὸ μέλλον ὑπάρχει καὶ τὸ διακόπτεσθαι τὴν ἐνέργειαν, καὶ ὑπερορίοις ἰοῦσιν ὥςπερ ἀπολείπειν τὴν τέχνην" ἔργον γὰρ οὐ μικρὸν ἁπανταχοῦ βαδίδοντα; σκευαγω-Ο γεῖν τὰ ἐπὶ ταύτην ἐφόδια. ᾿λλὰ τῆιγε δι ὀνείρων «15 μαντικῆς αὐτός τίς ἐσιν ἕκατο; ὄργανον’ ὦ{ςτε οὐδὲ βουλομιένοις ἔξεςιν ἀπολιπεῖν τὸ χρηεήριον᾽ ἀλλὰ καὶ μένοντι συνοικουρεῖ καὶ ἀποδημοῦντι συμπεριέρχεται, καὶ συφτρατεύεται, καὶ συμπολιτεύεται, καὶ συγγεωργεῖ, καὶ συνεμιπορεύεται. Ταύτην οὐδὲ “) οἱ νόμοι τῇς βαοὐ σκάνου πολιτείας κωλύουσιν, οὐδ᾽ ἄν, εἰ βούλοιντο, δύναιντο" κατὰ γὰρ τῶν χρωμένων οὐκ ἔχουσιν ἔλεγχον. ἢ Τί δ᾽ ἂν καὶ ἀδικοῖμεν “ καθεύδοντες; Οὐδ᾽ ἂν δια-..- Ω ᾽ Ω. ᾿ ΦΓ ᾽ ταξαιτο τύραννος ὀνείρωι ἀθεάμονας εἶναι, οὐκ

### English translation (Claude)

it is truer to say, since our time has exposed many things through those who served the laws, and these, once disclosed, have become sights and sounds for the profane crowd. Besides its being wretched to bend over such things, it is, I am persuaded, also hateful to God; for not to wait for anyone to come willingly, but to move him by shoving and levering, is like using force — which even among men the lawgiver did not leave unpunished. On top of all these difficulties, those who pursue the future in this way have their activity interrupted, and when they go abroad they leave the art behind, as it were; for it is no small task to carry the baggage for it wherever one walks. But in divination by dreams each person is himself the instrument, so that he could not leave the oracle behind even if he wished. It stays at home with him when he stays, goes abroad with him when he travels, campaigns with him, takes part in public life with him, farms with him and trades with him. The laws of a jealous state do not forbid it, nor could they if they wished; for they have no proof against those who use it. What wrong could we do by sleeping? Nor could a tyrant order people not to see dreams,

### Translation notes

- The "laws" are the imperial laws against divination and pagan rites; Synesius's remarks are translated as written.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 345 (Krabinger 1:345; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/345).

## Krabinger p. 346

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-346
- Source: Krabinger 1:346
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: No tyrant can forbid dreams; they are open to all and serve as prophet and counsellor, announcing good and warning of evil.

### Greek text

εἰ μή γε καὶ τὸ καθεύδειν ἐκ τῆς ἀρχομένης ἀποκηρύξειέν. ᾿Αλλὰ τοῦτο ἀνοήτου μέν ἐξείν, οἷς ἀδύνατα βούλεται" ἀσεβοῦς δὲ, οἷς ἐναντία νομοθετεῖ “ τῇ τε φύσει καὶ τῷ θεῷ. [ Ἷτητίον ἢ οὖν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὴν καὶ γυναικὶ καὶ ἀνδρὶ, καὶ πρεσβύτῃ καὶ νέῳ, καὶ πένητι καὶ πλουσίῳ, καὶ ἰδιώτῃ καὶ ἄρχοντι, καὶ) ἀεικῷ καὶ ἀγροδιαίτῳ, καὶ βαναύσῳ καὶ ῥήτορι" οὐ γένος, οὐχ ἡλικίαν, οὐ τύχηῆν, οὐ τέχνην ἀποκηρύττει. Πᾶσι πανταχοῦ ὃ) πά- Ἱθρέξι, προφῆτις ἵτοιμο,, ἀγαθὴ σύμβουλος, ἐχέμυθο;. Αὕτη μυφξαγωγός τε καὶ μύςις ἢ), εὐαγγελίσασθαι μὲν“ ἀγαθὸν, ὥιτε μακροτέραν ποιῆσαι ὅ τὴν ἡδονὴν προἁρπάσαντα τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν' καταμηνῦσαι δὲ τὸ χεῖρον, ὥςτε φυλάξασθαι καὶ προαποκρούσασθαι Ἴ). Καὶ γὰρ ὅσα ἐλπίδες, αἱ τὸ ἀνθρώπων βόσκουσι γένος, ὀρέγουσι χρητά τε καὶ μείλιχα, καὶ ὅσα φόβος ἔχει προμηθὴ τὲ καὶ ὀνήσιμα, πάντα τοὶς ὀνείροις

### English translation (Claude)

unless he banished sleep from his realm as well. But that would be the act of a fool, since he wants impossible things, and of an impious man, since he legislates against nature and God. So let woman and man, old and young, poor and rich, private man and ruler, townsman and countryman, artisan and orator betake themselves to it; it rejects no race, no age, no fortune, no art. It is present to all everywhere, a ready prophetess, a good counsellor, discreet. It is both mystagogue and initiate, announcing good things so as to lengthen the pleasure by snatching the enjoyment beforehand, and disclosing the worse so that one may guard against it and ward it off in advance. For whatever good and gentle things the hopes that feed the human race hold out, and whatever provident and useful things fear contains, all are in dreams,

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 346 (Krabinger 1:346; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/346).

## Krabinger p. 347

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-347
- Source: Krabinger 1:347
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Hope, Prometheus's gift, keeps people alive; even a prisoner can dream himself a general, for waking hope and dreams arise in the same imagination.

### Greek text

ἕνι, καὶ ὑπ᾽ οὐδενὸς οὕτως ἐλπίδειν ἀναπειθόμεθα. Καίτοι τὸ χρῆμα τῶν ἐλπίδων οὕτως ἐεὶν ἐν τῇ φύσει Β πολὺ καὶ σωτήριον, ὦττε φασὶν οἱ κομψοὶ σοφιεςαὶ μηδ᾽ ἄν ἰθελῆσαι δὴν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἔχοντας ὅ ὦ; ἐγένοντο τὴν ἀρχήν. ᾿Απαγορεύειν ν) γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν περικεχυμένων τὸν βίον δεινῶν, εἰ μὴ τὰς ἐλπίδας αὐτοῖς ἐνέχεεν εἰς τὴν φύσιν ὁ Προμηθεὺς, διαμονῇς φάρμακον, ὑφ᾽ ὦν παμαγόμενοι πιεότερον ἤγηνται τοῦ φαινομένου τὸ προςδοκώμενον αἱ δὲ τοσαύτην ἔχουσι τὴν ἰσχύν, ὥςτε ὁ δεδεμένος ἐν πέδαις, ὅταν ἐφῇ τῷ βουλομένῳ τῇς γνώμης ἐλπίσαι, καὶ λέλυ- "ται, καὶ ςρατεύεται, καὶ αὐτίκα διμοιρίτης ἐεὶ, καὶ μετὰ μικρὸν λοχαγὸς, ἔπειτα ἐρατηγὸς, καὶ νικᾷ, ἢ αὶ καὶ θύει, καὶ ςεφανηῃφορεῖ, καὶ παρατίθεται τράπεξαν, 15εἰ μὲν βούλοιτο, Σικελικήν" εἰ δὲ βούλοιτο, ηδικήν. αὶ μέντοι τοῖν ποδοῖν ἐπιλήσμων ἐεὶν, ἕως εἶναι βούλεται τρατηγός. αΐ τοι πᾶν τοῦτο ὕπαρ ἐσὶν ὀνειρώττοντος καὶ ἐγρηγορότος ἐνύπνιον 3})" περὶ γὰρ ταὐτὸν ὑποκείμενον ἄμφω συνίςανται, φοτὴν φανταεικὴν φύσιν, ἣν, ὅταν μὲν ἡμεῖς εἰδωλοποιεῖν ἐθελήσωμεν, ἕν τοῦτο παρέχεται χρήσιμον" ἐπα-

### English translation (Claude)

and by nothing are we so persuaded to hope. And the thing called hope is so great and so saving in our nature that the clever sophists say people would not even have wished to live, as they were at first; they would have given up under the terrors that surround life, had not Prometheus poured hopes into their nature, a drug for endurance, led by which they think what they expect more trustworthy than what they see. Hopes have such strength that the man bound in fetters, when he lets his judgment hope as it pleases, is set free, goes on campaign, is at once a soldier on double pay, a little later a captain, then a general; he wins, sacrifices, wears a crown, and sets a table — Sicilian if he likes, or Median. And he forgets his feet as long as he wishes to be a general. Yet all this is the waking of a dreamer and the dream of a waking man; for both arise in the same subject, the imaginative nature, which, when we wish to make images, gives us this one useful thing:

### Extrabiblical texts

- Aeschylus, PV 248-250 (Aeschylus (plays and fragments)): allusion, medium confidence

### Translation notes

- Prometheus's gift of blind hopes: Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 248–250.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 347 (Krabinger 1:347; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/347).

## Krabinger p. 348

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-348
- Source: Krabinger 1:348
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Waking hope consoles but deceives; hope given in sleep is God's pledge and prepares us for coming events, the hope Pindar praised.

### Greek text

λείφει τὸν βίον ἡμῶν εὐθυμίᾳ, καὶ κολακεύουσα τὴν ψυχὴν ταῖς πεπλανημέναι; ἐλπίσιν, ἀναλαμβάνει ἢ ᾿τῶν δυιχερῶν τῇς αἰσθήσεω;. Ὅταν ἢ) δὲ αὐτεπίτακτος ἡμῖν ἐλπίδα προβάλῃται" τοῦτο δὲ γίνεται καθευδόντων᾽" ἐνέχυρον ἔχομεν τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν τῶν ὕπνων ὑπόσχεσιν" ὦιτε δη τις εὐτρεπίσας τὴν γνώμην εἰς τὸ χρήσασθαι μείξδοσι πράγμασιν Ὅ, ἃ προὔτεινεν αὐτῷ τὸ ἐνύπνιον, διττὸν ἠνέγκατο κέρδοι, τὸ τε ἡσθῆναι πρὸ ὃ τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ τὸ παραγενομένοις ἐπισαμένως χρήσασθαι τῷ πάλαι ἸΑ προεσκέφθαι περὶ αὐτῶν, ὡς; προτυκόντων αὐτοῦ τῷ βίῳ. “Ὥκτε ἣν ὃ) ὕμνησε τὴν ἐλπίδα ὁ Πίνδαρος, περὶ ἀνδρὸς λέγων εὐδαΐμιονος, ὅτι ἄρα ὅ) αὐτῷ γλυκεῖα καρδίαν ἀτάλλοισα κουροτρόφος συναορεῖ ἐλπὶς, ᾿Ιδὰ μάλιτα θνατῶν πολύεροφον γνώμαν κυβερνᾷ Ἶ, φαίη τις ἂν οὐ περὶ τῆς ὕπαρ λέγεσθαι, τῇς ἀπατηλῇς, ὃν ἡμεῖς ἑαυτοῖς διαπλάττομεν" ἀλλ᾽ ὅλον τοῦτο μικροῦ μέρους; ἐνυπνίων ἔπαινος εἴρηται τῷ Πινδάρῳ..᾿

### English translation (Claude)

it anoints our life with good cheer, and, flattering the soul with wandering hopes, lifts it out of the hardships of perception. But when it puts forth hope for us of its own accord — and this happens when we sleep — we have the promise of our sleep as a pledge from God; so that anyone who prepares his mind to deal with the greater things which the dream held out to him has a double gain: delight before the events, and the skill to handle them when they come through having long considered them, as though they had already been part of his life. So the hope that Pindar hymned, speaking of a happy man — that "sweet hope, nurse of youth, cherishing his heart, goes with him, which most of all steers the much-turning mind of mortals" — one might say is not spoken of waking hope, the deceitful one that we fashion for ourselves; this whole praise was spoken by Pindar of a small part of dreams.

### Extrabiblical texts

- Pindar, fr. 214 (Pindar (odes and fragments)): quotation, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Pindar, fragment 214 (Snell–Maehler), also quoted by Plato, Republic 1.331a.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 348 (Krabinger 1:348; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/348).

## Krabinger p. 349

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-349
- Source: Krabinger 1:349
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Penelope's two gates of dreams reflect her ignorance; the dream of the eagle she disbelieved came true with Odysseus in her house.

### Greek text

Ἢ περὶ τοὺς ὀνείρους οὖν " μαντικὴ, σὺν τέχνῃ μετιοῦσα τὸ πεφηνὸς βεβαιοτέραν τὴν ἐλπίδα παρέχεται, Β ὦιτε μὴ τοῦ φαυλοτέρου ᾿ γίνου; δοκεῖν. Ἢ δὲ Ομήρου Πηνελόπῃ διττὰς ὑποτίθεται πύλας ὀνείρων ὅ καὶ ποιεὶ τοὺς ἡμίσεις ἀπατηλοὺ,, ὅτι σοφὴ τὰ ἢ) περὶ ὀνείρων οὐκ ἦν" εἰ γὰρ ἠπίτατο τέχνην ἐπ᾽ αὐτοὺ, πάντας ἂν διὰ τῶν κεράτων παρήνεγκε. Πεποίηται γοῦν ἐξελεγχομένῃ καὶ ἀμαθίαν ὀφλισκάνουσα περὶ; αὐτὴν ἢ δήπου τὴν ὄψιν, ἡ μὴ δέον ἠπίευσε. Α Χῆνες μὲν μνηῃφῆρες" ἐγὼ δέ τοι αἰετὸς ὄρνις Εἰμ᾽ ᾽οδυσεύι. Ὃ δὲ ἦν ὁμωρόφιος καὶ πρὸς ὃν ἠδολέσχει διὰς τῆς ὄψεως. «“Ιοκῶ μοι διὰ τῶν τοιούτων ἀκούειν Ομήρου λέγοντος, ὦ, οὐκ ἀξιον ἀπογινώσκειν οὔτε ὀνείρων, οὐδὲ τὴν ἀσθένειαν τῶν χρωμένων

### English translation (Claude)

Divination by dreams, pursuing what has appeared with art, makes hope firmer, so that it does not seem to belong to the inferior kind. Homer's Penelope posits two gates of dreams and makes half of them deceitful, because she was not wise about dreams; had she known the art concerning them, she would have brought them all through the gate of horn. At any rate she is shown refuted and convicted of ignorance about the very vision she wrongly disbelieved: "The geese are the suitors, and I, who was the eagle, am now Odysseus." And he was under the same roof, and she was chatting with him about the vision. Through such things I seem to hear Homer saying that one should neither despair of dreams nor transfer the weakness of those who use them

### Extrabiblical texts

- Homer, Od. 19.548-549 (Homer, Odyssey): quotation, high confidence
- Homer, Od. 19.560-567 (Homer, Odyssey): allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Odyssey 19.535–581 (the eagle dream, 19.548–549; the gates of horn and ivory, 19.560–567).

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 349 (Krabinger 1:349; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/349).

## Krabinger p. 350

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-350
- Source: Krabinger 1:350
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Agamemnon's dream did not deceive him: it promised victory only if the whole army fought, and Achilles' men were absent.

### Greek text

ἐπὶ τὴν φύαιν μετατιθέναι τῶν ὁρωμένων. Παρ᾽ ὃ) μηδὲ "4γαμέμνων᾽ δίκαιός ἐσιν ἐγκαλεῖν ἀπάτην ὀνείρων, κακῶς; ὑπολαβὼν περὶ τῇς νίκῃς τὴ: μαντευτῆς" Θωρῇξαί σε κέλευσε καρηκομόωνται; ᾿Αχαιοὺς ὅ “Πανσυδίῃ. νῦν γάρ κεν ἕλοις πόλιν εὐρυάγυιαν. Ὁ ᾿Πρόεισιν οὖν ὡς; αὐτοβοεὶ τὴν πόλιν αἰἱρήσων, ὅτι τοῦ πανσυδίῃ παρήκουσεν, ὅ φησιν, εἰ πρὸς ἕνᾳ τὸ ᾿Ἑλληνικὸν ἐξοπλίσειι. Τῷ δ᾽ ᾽ν ᾿Αχιλλεύς τε καὶ ἡ Μυρμιδόνων φάλαγξ ἀπόμαχο, ἦν, τὸ εὐψυχότατὸν τοῦ ςρατεύματος.

### English translation (Claude)

to the nature of the things seen. That is why not even Agamemnon is right to accuse dreams of deceit, since he misunderstood the victory foretold: "He bade you arm the long-haired Achaeans with all speed; for now you might take the wide-wayed city." So he goes forth as though to take the city at the first shout, because he did not heed "with all speed," which means: if he armed the Greek host to a man. But for him Achilles and the phalanx of the Myrmidons were out of the fight, the boldest part of the army.

### Extrabiblical texts

- Homer, Il. 2.28-29 (Homer, Iliad): quotation, high confidence

### Translation notes

- The quotation is Iliad 2.28–29. The next page does not continue from here; lines are probably lost in the OCR.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 350 (Krabinger 1:350; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/350).

## Krabinger p. 351

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-351
- Source: Krabinger 1:351
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Dreams have helped Synesius in philosophy and writing, supplying thoughts, words and corrections to his style.

### Greek text

σασθαι, καὶ συςρατηγῆσαι, καὶ πᾶσι πάντα ὅ) συγ κατεργάσασθαι, ταῦθ᾽ ἃ μικρὸν πρόσθεν εἶπον" τὰκ “ δὲ δ).εἰς αὐτὸν ἐμὲ παρ᾽ αὐτῇς οὔπω δημοσιεύσα;.᾽ ἙΚαίτοιγε οὐδὲν οὕτω συνδιατίθεται τοῖς ἀνθρώἡ ποις, ὡς συμφιλοσοφεῖ ἦ), καὶ πολλὰ τῶν ὕπαρ ἀπόρων, ἐπειδὴ καθεύδοιμεν, τὰ μὲν ὅλα ἔφηνε, τὰ δὲ συνηυπόρῃσε. Γίνεται γάρ τι ᾽ν) τοιοῦτον, ὡς; νῦν μὲν ἐοικέναι πυνθανομένῳ, νῦν δὲ αὐτὸν εἶναι τὸν ξξευρίσκοντα καὶ διανοούμενον. ᾿Εμοὶ δὴ θαμὰ καὶ συγγράμματα συνεξείργαται. αὶ γὰρ νοῦν ηὐτρέπισε. καὶ λέξιν ἐνήρμοσε, καὶ τὸ μὲν διέγραψε, τὸ δὲ ' ἀντεμήγαγεν. Ἢδη δέ ποτε καὶ τὴν ὅλην Β κατασκευὴν τῆς γλώττῃ, ὑλομανοῦσάν τε καὶ φλεγμαίνουσαν ὀνομάτων καινότητι δήλῳ τῇς ἐκφύλου, συ

### English translation (Claude)

… to share command, and to accomplish all things for all — the things I spoke of a little before; but I have not yet made public what it has done for me myself. And yet nothing works with people so much as it shares their philosophy: many things that perplexed us awake it has revealed wholly when we slept, or helped us to find. For something of this kind happens, so that now one seems to be inquiring, and now to be oneself the discoverer and thinker. For me it has often helped to work out writings: it prepared the thought, fitted the diction, struck out one thing and brought in another. Once, too, when the whole structure of my style was running wild and inflamed with novel words in emulation of the outlandish,

### Translation notes

- The beginning of the page continues a lost passage.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 351 (Krabinger 1:351; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/351).

## Krabinger p. 352

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-352
- Source: Krabinger 1:352
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Dreams corrected Synesius's overwrought style and guided his hunting, once foretelling a great catch.

### Greek text

μέν τι εἰπόντος, τὸ δὲ τί ἔσιν εἰπόντος, τὸ δὲ δείἔαντο; ὄχθου; τινὰς ἀπολεαίνειν ἐκπεφυκότας τῇ, γλωττῇ,, ἰπανήγαγέ τε ἐς τὸ σῶφρον καὶ τὸ οἱδοῦν ἐκόὅλασε, καὶ κυνηγετουντί ποτε συνεπαλαμήσατο μηχανὰς ἐπὶ τὰ σὺν τέχνῃ τῶν θηρίων καὶ θέοντα καὶ κρυπτόμενα, καὶ ἀπειπόντι δέ ποτε καὶ ἀναδευ- ( γνύντι προφεδρείαν ἐπέταξε, καὶ τὴν τύχην εἰς κυρίαν ὑπέσχετο, ὥςτε ἤδιον θυραυλῇσαι) πιεεύσαντα " αὶ δὲ ἐπειδὴ παρὴν, ἡ κυρία, καὶ ἡ τύχῃ παρῆν, ὅγε ὑπέδειξεν ἐσμοὺς δικετυαλώτων καὶ δοριαλώτων θηρίων. Ἐμοὶ μὲν οὖν βίος βιβλία καὶ θήρα, ὅτι μὴ πε-

### English translation (Claude)

one figure saying one thing, another telling what it was, another showing certain swellings that had grown on the tongue and needed smoothing, it brought it back to sobriety and checked the swelling. When I was hunting it once devised with me contrivances against beasts that run and hide with cunning; and once, when I had given up and was breaking camp, it ordered me to sit on, and promised good fortune on the appointed day, so that I stayed out of doors more gladly, trusting it. And when the day came, the good fortune came too, which showed me swarms of beasts caught in nets and by spears. My life is books and hunting, except when

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 352 (Krabinger 1:352; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/352).

## Krabinger p. 353

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-353
- Source: Krabinger 1:353
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: During his embassy at court dreams saved Synesius from sorcerers' plots and gave him boldness before the emperor; clear dreams come to a soul withdrawn from the senses.

### Greek text

πρέσβευκά ποτε. "Ὥς ἀὐκ ὥφελον. ". ἀποφράδα; ἰδεῖν ἐνιαυτοὺς τρεῖς ἐπ τοῦ βίου. ε: Καὶ κεέν τοι. τότε πλεῖτα δὴ καὶ“ μέγιτα ὠνάμῃην αὐτῇ..ι᾿Ἐπιβουλά, τε. γὰρ ἐπ᾿ ἐμὲ ψυχοπομπῶν γούήτων., ἀκύρους ἐποίησε, καὶ πφύνασα καὶ ἐξ ἁπασῶν περισώσασά, καὶ κοινὰ συνδιῴ-Ὦ κησεν, ὥςτε ἄριτα ἔχειν ταῖς «πόλεσι,. καὶ ἐς τὴν βασιλέως ὁμιλίαν τῶν πώποτε Ἕλλόνων θᾳῤῥαλεώεερον παρεεήσατο. ἜΝ; ΄ (ττῶτο, "ἄλλοι, δὲ ἄλλων μέλει" ἡ δὲ πάρεει πᾶσι, δαί- 1Ι0μὼν ἀγαθὸς οὖσα ἑκάτῳ, καὶ ἐπιτεχνωμένη τι ταῖς ἢ) ἐν ἐγρηγορόσι φροντίσιν. “Οὕτω σοφόν τι χρῆμα ψυχῇὴ σχολάσασα Ἶ τοὺ κατακλυσμοῦ -τῶν ᾿ ἀγοραίων αἰσθήσεων, ἐπεμαγουσῶν ὃ). αὐτῇ ἱ παντοδαπὸν: τὸ ἀλ- 'λότριον..“Α τε.3}" γὰρ ἔχει τὰ εἴδη,, καὶ ὅσα παρὰ νοῦ δέχεται,.. μόν. γενομένην: παρέχει." τοῖ;: ἱεραμμένοις ἐπὶ τὰ εἴσω καὶ. τὰ. παρὰ τοῦ. θείου. πορθμίεύει. Συγγίνεται͵. γὰρ: αὐτῇ. καὶ θεὸς ἐγκόσμιος οὕτω ἐχούσῃ τῷ τὴν φύσιν. αὐτῆς. ὁμόθεν εἶναι. Τὰ μὲν δὰ γένῃ ταῦτα τῶν ἐνυπνίων θεσπεσιώτερά Ἴ) ἔστι, καὶ ἢ πάνοὐτω,, ἢ παρὰ μικρὸν πάντως τρανὰ καὶ σαφῇ, καὶ. τούτῳ

### English translation (Claude)

I served as envoy — "would that I had not!" — and saw three ill-omened years of my life. And yet then above all I gained the most and greatest benefits from it. It made void the plots against me of sorcerers who conjure souls, revealing them all and saving me from all; it helped me manage public affairs so that the cities fared best; and it set me before the emperor with more boldness than any Greek ever had. Some care for some things, others for others; but dream divination is present to all, a good daemon to each, devising something for our waking cares. So wise a thing is the soul when it has leisure from the flood of the senses of the marketplace, which bring into it all kinds of alien things. For the forms it holds, and whatever it receives from mind, it offers, when it has become alone, to those turned toward the inner, and it ferries across what comes from the divine. For the god within the cosmos keeps company with it when it is so, because its nature springs from the same source. These kinds of dreams, then, are the more divine, and are either entirely or almost entirely distinct and clear, and

### Translation notes

- Synesius's embassy to Constantinople, 397/399–400. "Would that I had not": Iliad 3.40 (adapted).

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 353 (Krabinger 1:353; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/353).

## Krabinger p. 354

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-354
- Source: Krabinger 1:354
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Clear dreams come to the virtuous; most dreams are riddles needing an art, for all things past, present and future shed images.

### Greek text

γένοιτο τοῖς κατ᾽ “ἀρετήν ἀῶσιν;, εἴτε φρονήσει πεπορι- ᾿ σμένην,᾿ ἐΐτ᾽ ᾿ἔθισιν υ γγενομιένην. ἘΠ δὲ ποτε καὶ ἄλλῳ τῳ, μόλιερι μὲν, ἀλλά: γένοιτ᾽ ᾽) ἄν" -“πάντως δὲ δούὺκ ἐκὶ σμικρῷ: δύ. τινὶ “τῶν. ἀρίστων γενῶν ἐνύπνιον Β τῷ. τυχόντι. καρέφαι: ' Ἴὸ' δὲ λοιπὸν “καὶ πολὺ καὶ ἐδινότατον }}: γένος ἐκεῖνο, ἂν τεῖη. τὸ -ἡνιγμένον.. καὶ ἐφ᾽ ὃ δεῖ τὴν τέχνην παρασκευάσασθαι. Γένεσίν τε γὰρ ἔσχεν, ὡς; οὕτως εἰπεῖν, ᾿ἄτοπον καὶ ἀλλόκο- 1θτον, καὶ ὡ; ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων βλατῦσαν ἀσαφέεατον πρόεισιν. Ἔν γὰρ ὰ ὧδε: ἐπῆρ αὐτοῦ. Ὅσα φύσις ἔχει 'κάντων ὄντων, " γενοῤένων ἢ), μελλόντων" ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτο ᾿Ἐρόπο; ᾽) -ὑπάρξεω;" εἴδωλα ἀποῤῥεῖ, καὶ τὴ, “ὑποεάσεως ᾿αὐτῶν. ἀλοκάλλεται, Εἰ 1ῦ γὰρ᾽ ἕκατον αἰσθητὸν' εἶδός ἐειν ὕλῃ συνδυασθὲν ὃ), ἐφώράσαμεν ᾿δὲ τῇ, ὕλη! ἐν" υτξῷ τσυνθέτῳ “τὴν ἐκροὴν, ὁ λόγος αἱρεὶ καὶ τὴν 'τῶν ᾿ἐἰδώλων φύσιν ἐξοχετεύεσθαι; ἵνα. κατ᾽ ἄμφω 'τὰ Ἡέρῃ τὸν τοῦ ὄντος ἀξίαν

### English translation (Claude)

they would come to those who live by virtue, whether acquired by wisdom or grown up by habit. If ever they come to anyone else, it is rarely, though it may happen; but certainly a dream of the best kinds would not come to an ordinary person for some small matter. The rest, the large and most common kind, would be the riddling one, for which one must prepare the art. For it had, so to speak, a strange and outlandish birth, and, sprung from such things, it comes forth most unclear. For this is how it is. Everything that nature holds — things that are, that have come to be, and that will be, for this too is a mode of existence — sheds images, which leap off from their subsistence. For if each sensible thing is a form joined with matter, and we have detected the outflow of matter in the composite, reason requires that the nature of images too should drain off, so that in both parts

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 354 (Krabinger 1:354; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/354).

## Krabinger p. 355

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-355
- Source: Krabinger 1:355
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The imagination mirrors the images shed by things; images of the past and present are clear, those of the future dim and riddling, so they need interpretation.

### Greek text

ἀποῤῥεόντων εἰδώλων. τὸ φανταεικὸν.' ἀνεῦμα ὑκάτο- ᾿ πτρὸν ἔεσιν ἐμφανέσατον " περινοτοῦντα γὰρ) ἀλλώς καὶ διολισθαίνοντα «άσεως ὅ) τῇ, τε ἀοριτίᾳ τοῦ εἶναιί καὶ ὅ τῷ παρὰ μηδενὸς τῶν ὄντων ἐπιγινώσκεσθαι, ἐπειδὰν. ἐγκύρσῃ τοῖς ψυχικοῖς πνεύμασιν, εἰδώλοις. μὲν οὖσιν... ἔδραν δὲ ἔχουσιν εἰς τὴν φύσιν, τούξοι; προφςαπερείδον- ἢ ται καὶ ὠ(περ. εἰς ἑσίαν αὐτὰ ἀναπαύονται... Τῶν “μὲν οὖν ᾿γενομένων, ἅτε. ἤδη παρελθόντων. εἰς τὴν, ᾿τοῦ εἶναι ἐνέργειαν,, σαφῃ: τὰ εἴδωλα.ἀποεέλλέται.," μέχρες ἂν ὑπὸ χρόνου πλήθους ἀμενηνὰ «αὶ ἐξίτήλα ᾿γγένηκοι ται" τῶν δὲ ὄντων; ἅτε ἑτώτων ἔτι, ὑμάλλον" ἔμβια καὶ ἀριδηλότερα.." ἀοριεότερα δὲ τῶν -μελλόντωμιεἰαὶ ἀδιάκριτα' προκυλενδήματα, γάρ ιἔειν οὔπω ἱπὰῤόν» Ἰδτων, φύσεως ἀτελοῦς ἐξαᾳνθήματα, οἷον ἀποσκιρτῶντα Χαὶ ἐξαλλόμενα Γσπερμάτων ἀποκειμένων. αἰνίγματα. Ταύτῃ καὶ δεὶ τέχνῃ ἐπὲ τὸ «μέλλον " ἐσζὶ ἀγραφημένα γὰρ ἀπ᾽ «αὐτοῦ πρόεισιν εἴδωλωτὰκαὶ: οὐκ. ἐμφανεῖς εἰκόνες, ὥςπερ ἀπὸ τῶν ὄντων....

### English translation (Claude)

the composite may resemble what flows off. Of these images flowing off, the imaginative spirit is the clearest mirror. For they wander idly and slip from stability through the indefiniteness of their being and through being recognized by none of the things that are; and when they meet the psychic spirits, which are images too but have a seat in nature, they lean upon them and rest in them as at a hearth. The images of things that have come to be, since these have already passed into the activity of being, are sent off clearly, until by length of time they grow faint and fade; those of things that are, since they still stand, are more alive and distinct; but those of things to come are more indefinite and indistinct; for they are preludes of what is not yet present, blossomings of an incomplete nature, riddles that leap and spring off, as it were, from stored-up seeds. That is why an art is needed for the future; for the images that proceed from it are not inscribed and not manifest likenesses, as are those from things that are.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 355 (Krabinger 1:355; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/355).

## Krabinger p. 356

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-356
- Source: Krabinger 1:356
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: The best preparation for true dreams is philosophic calm and a temperate diet; for those who cannot achieve this, Synesius proposes an art of interpreting images.

### Greek text

,θαυμαφά Ἶ).γένιτοι τὴν φύσιν ἐεὶ καὶ οὕτως ἔχοντα, ὅτι ἀπὸ μὐπω.:γενομένων ἐγένετο. ᾿Αλλ᾽ ἤδη γάρ τι. καὶ περὶ τῇε' τέχνης ῥητέον, ὠς ἄν παραγένοιτο. “Ἄριτον μὲν οὖν ὅ) οὕτως παρεσκευακέναι τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ δθεῖον, ὡς ἐφορείας..ἀξιοῦσθαι νοῦ καὶ θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ : αὴ ᾿δεξαμένην “εἶναι. τῶν ἀορίτων εἰδώλων. Τροφὴ δὲ δ) ἀρίξῃ διά: τε φιλοσοφίας γαλήνην ἐμποιούσυη; παθῶν; ὑφ᾽ ὧν κινηθέντων τὸ πνεῦμα᾽,. καθάπερ χώρα,Β καταλαμβάνεται, καὶ διὰ" μετρίας διαίτης καὶ σώφρονος, ἥκισα μὲν ἐξόισρώσης τὸ δῶον. ὕἥκιτα δὲ σάλον ἑμποιούσῃς εἰς. τὸ. ἔσχατον. σῶμα’ φθάνοι γὰρ ἂν ὁ κλόνος μέχρι τοῦ πρώτοῳψ" τὸ δὲ ἄτρεμές τε δεὶ καὶ ἀκλόνητον εἶναι. -.᾿Α4λλ᾽ ἐπειδὴ. τοῦτο συνεύξασθαι μὲν ἅπαντι ῥάδιον, συγκατεργάσασθαι δὲ ἁπάντων. "18 ἀμηχανώτατον, ἡμεῖς δὲ" βουλόμεθα μηδενὶ τὸν ὕπνον, ") ἀνόνητον εἶναι, φέρε τινὰ, κἀν τοῖς ἀορίξοις ὅρον «δητήσωμιεν, τοῦτ᾽ ἔστι τέχνην περὶ τὰ εἴδωλα συτησώμεθα. Ἔχει “δὲ οὕτω...

### English translation (Claude)

They are marvellous in nature even being so, since they come from things that have not yet come to be. But now something must be said about the art, and how it may be acquired. Best, then, is to have so prepared the divine spirit that it is thought worthy of the oversight of mind and God, and is not a receptacle for the indefinite images. The best nourishment is through philosophy, which produces calm in the passions — when these are stirred, the spirit is seized like a territory — and through a moderate and temperate diet, which least goads the living being and least causes tossing in the outermost body; for the shaking would reach as far as the first body, which must be steady and unshaken. But since this is easy for anyone to pray for, but of all things the most impossible to achieve, and we wish sleep to be useless to no one, come, let us seek some limit even in the indefinite — that is, let us set up an art concerning the images. It is as follows.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 356 (Krabinger 1:356; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/356).

## Krabinger p. 357

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-357
- Source: Krabinger 1:357
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Dream images are signs learned by experience, like a sailor's landmark or a halo round the moon foretelling a storm.

### Greek text

“Πιπερ᾽ ἐπὶ τῶν διαποντίων ἢ πλεόντων, ὅταν πόϊξε σκοπέλῳ τινὶ προεντύχωσι ἢ, κἄτ᾽ ἀποβάντεε ἢ ἴδωσι πόλιν ἀνδρῶν, ὁσάκις ἂν τὸν αὐτὸν͵ σκόπελον ἴδωσι, τὴν αὐτὴν πόλιν σημαίνονται" καὶ ὥςπερ ἐπὶ ἢ τῶν -ρατηγῶν, οὗ, οὐχ ὁρῶντες ἀπὸ τῶν προδρόμων ἴσμεν ὅτι παρέσονται' τῶν γὰρ αὐτὼν φανέντων ἀεί ποτε παρεγένοντο" οὕτω Ἷ καὶ τοῖς εἰδώλοις ἐκάςοτε σημαινόμεθα τὴν τῶν ἐσομένων ἐνέργειαν" πρόδρομα γάρ ἔτι ταῦτα τῶν αὐτῶν καὶ ὅμοια τῶν ὁμοίων. 10.2:πεὲῤ οὖν κυβερνήτου κακία ταὐτοῦ σκοπέλου φανέίντο; ΠῚ) εἰ ἐπιγνῶναι, μηδ᾽ ἔχειν εἰπεῖν παρ᾽ ἣντινα γῆν τὸ σκάφος σαλεύει, καὶ ὁ τοιοῦτος ἀτέκμαρτα Ἢ} πλεῖ" οὕτως ὁ τὴν αὐτὴν ὄψιν πολλάκις ἰδὼν, εἰ μὴ κατισημήνατο Ὗ, τίνος αὐτῳ προφῇῆτι; ἐγένετο πά- 1ὅθους, ἢ τύχῃη;, ἢ πράξεως, ἀνοήτως χρῆται τῷ βίῳ, καθάπερ ὁ κυβερνήτῃς ἐκεῖνος τῷ σκάφει. Ἀαὶ τὰς διοσημείας προαγορεύομεν ἐν εἰρήνῃ βαθείᾳ τοῦ περιέχοντος, περὶ τὴν σελήνην ἅλως 1}) ἰδόντες, ὅτι πολλάκις ἰδόντων οὕτω ᾽Ὁ) χειμὼν ἠκολούθησε,

### English translation (Claude)

Just as sailors crossing the sea, when they have come upon some rock and then, landing, seen a city of men, take the same rock, as often as they see it, as a sign of the same city; and as with generals, whom we know will arrive, though we do not see them, from their forerunners — for whenever the same forerunners appeared, they came — so by the images each time we are given signs of the activity of things to come; for these are forerunners of the same things, and like of like. And as it is a pilot's fault not to recognize the same rock when it appears, nor be able to say off what land his ship is tossing — such a man sails without bearings — so one who has often seen the same vision, if he has not noted of what experience, fortune or action it was the prophet to him, uses his life foolishly, as that pilot uses his ship. We also foretell weather signs in a deep calm of the air, seeing a halo round the moon, because when people often saw it so, a storm followed:

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 357 (Krabinger 1:357; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/357).

## Krabinger p. 358

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-358
- Source: Krabinger 1:358
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: As perception leads to memory, experience and art, so an art of dreams can be built from observation.

### Greek text

Ῥηγνυμένῃ ἀνέμοιο, μαραινομένῃ δὲ γαλύήνῃ:. Ταὶ δύο δ᾽ ἂν χειμῶνι περιτροχάοιντο σελήνην" Μείδονα δ᾽ ἂν χειμῶνα φέροι τριηέλικτος ἀλωῇ, ὅ Καὶ μάλλον, μελανεῦσα, καὶ εἰ ῥηγνύατο μᾶλλον. Οὕτω, ἐπὶ πάντων [καὶ] ᾿Αριςοτέλῃ; τε καὶ ὁ λόγος φησίν" ἡ μὲν αἴσθησις μνήμην, ἡ δὲ μνήμη Β πεῖραν, καὶ δὲ πεῖρα τέχνην ἐποίησεν' οὕτω καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τοὺς ὀνείρους βαδίσωμεν. Ἤθροιται μὲν οὖν ἐνίοις ἤδη ἢ βιβλία συχνὰ

### English translation (Claude)

"If it breaks, it means wind; if it fades, calm. Two halos ringing the moon would mean storm; a threefold halo would bring a greater storm, and more so if it is black, and more if it is broken." So in all things, as Aristotle and reason say, perception produced memory, memory experience, and experience art; and so let us proceed to the art concerning dreams. Some have already collected many books

### Extrabiblical texts

- Aratus, Phaen. 813-817 (Aratus, Phaenomena): quotation, high confidence
- Aristotle, Metaph. 980b-981a (Aristotle (works)): allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- The verses are Aratus, Phaenomena 813–817 (lunar halos). Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.1 (980b–981a); Posterior Analytics 2.19. Krabinger prints a bracketed καὶ as a word to be deleted; it is left out.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 358 (Krabinger 1:358; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/358).

## Krabinger p. 359

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-359
- Source: Krabinger 1:359
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: General dream-books are useless, because each person's imaginative spirit differs by origin, as souls come from different spheres.

### Greek text

τῇ: τοιάςδε παρᾳτηρῴφσεωι" ἀλλ᾽ ἔγωγε [τῶμ] ἃ) αὐτῶν ἁπάντων. καταγελῶ καὶ, ὀλίγον. ὄφελος ἤγημαι- Οὐ γὰρ ὠιπερ τὸ, σῶμα τὸ ἔσχατον τῶν καθωμιλημένων τοιχείων ἡὶ σύνοδος δύναται δίξασθαι τίχνῃν ὅ καθ᾿ ὅλου) καὶ λόγον τῇ φύσει συμιπαραᾳτείνοντα" ὡς γὰρ ἱπὶ τὸ πλεῖρον ὅδ), ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν ταὐτὰ δ) πάσχει μικρᾶς οὖσῃς ἐν τοῖς ὁμφειδέσι, τῇ, διαφορὰς τῇς πρὸς ἄλληλα, καὶ τὸ παρὰ φύσιν. ἔχον ἐν αὐτοῖς οὐ λανθάνει νοσοῦν ), οὐδὲ χρώμεθα τῷ. τοιούτῳ Οὶ 10γνώμονι᾽ οὐχ οὕτως ἐπὶ: τοῦ φανταεικοῦ ") πνεύματος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῇ πρώτῃ φύσει διενήνοχεν ἄλλο ἄλλον. ἄλλο γὰρ ἄλλῃ σφαίρᾳ προφήκει τῷ͵ πλείονι. τοῦ φνράματοι. ᾿ς ἮἯ μάλα δὰ κεϊναὶ «γε. κιβιάρξμεαι ΩΝ 158 πασέων Ἶ Φυχάων ποτὶ.}) γαῖαν ἀπ᾿ οὐρανόθεν προχέονται" Ἀεῖναι δ᾽ (ὄλβιταί τὲ καὶ οὐ φατὰ νήματ᾽ ἔχουσαι, “Ὅσσαι ἀπ' αἰγλήεντοι, ἄναξ, σίθεν, ἡδὲ ᾽ καὶ αὐτοῦ Ὁ Ἔκ “1"ιὸι ἐξεγένοντο, μίτου κρατερῇ! ὑπ᾽ ἀνάγκῃ!-

### English translation (Claude)

of such observations; but I laugh at all of them and think them of little use. With the body, the lowest assemblage of the common elements, a universal art and a rule extending along with nature is possible; for for the most part it suffers the same things from the same causes, the differences among bodies of the same kind being small, and what is contrary to nature in them does not escape notice as disease — and even so we do not use such a rule. It is not so with the imaginative spirit: one differs from another even in its first nature, for one belongs to one sphere and another to another, by the greater part of its blend. "Truly wretched are those of all souls which pour down to earth from heaven; but most blessed, with threads beyond telling, are those which came from your radiance, lord, and from Zeus himself, under the strong necessity of the thread."

### Translation notes

- Krabinger prints a bracketed τῶν as a word to be deleted; it is left out. The verses are from an unidentified oracle (perhaps one of those collected by Porphyry); the god addressed is probably the Sun.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 359 (Krabinger 1:359; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/359).

## Krabinger p. 360

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-360
- Source: Krabinger 1:360
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Each soul has its own star; souls defiled by matter carry a diseased spirit, so the same images cannot mean the same for everyone.

### Greek text

ε. Βαὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἄρα ἦν, ὅπερ ἡνίξατο Τίμαιος, διδοὺς ἑκάξῃ ψυχῇ. σύννομον ἄφρον.. Αἱ δὲ καὶ "5 τῆς φύσεως ἐκςᾶσαι, τῷ φιλοχωρῆσαι περὶ τὴν ὕλην, ἡ μὲν ἧττον, ἡ δὲ μᾶλλον, ὡ; ἑκάξτῃ ῥοπῇς ἐδυεύχησε, ὅ ὃ πνεῦμα ἐμόλυνεν. Ἐνοικίδονταὶι δὴ -σώμασεν οὕτως ἔχουσαι, καὶ γίνεται βίος ὅλος ἐν ἁμαρτίᾳ καὶ νόσῳ τοῦ πνεύματο!,. αὐτῷ μὲν 'παρὰ φύσιν διὰ τὴν πρώτην εὐγίνειαν" τῷ δώῳ δὲ κατὰ φύσιν "152 ὑπὸ γὰρ οὕτως 3.) ἔχοντος; ἐψυχωθη" εἰ μὴ καὶ αὐτῷ φύσις ἐεξὶν ἡ τάξις, εἶς ἣν ὑφ᾽. ἑαυτοῦ τάττεται, κακίᾳ καὶ ἀρετῇ χρώμενον. -Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω, ὥςπερ πνεῦμα, εὐτράπελον. - Πῶς ἂν οὖν ἐν τοῖς ἀνομοίοις καὶ φύσει, καὶ νόμῳ, καὶ πάθει, ταὐτὰ ἂν ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐμφανίξοιτο; Οὐκ ἔσι τοῦτο, οὐδ᾽ ἂν γένοιτο. πῶς δ᾽ ἂν γένοιτο τὸ τεθολωμένον ὕδωρ, καὶ τὸ διαφανὲς, καὶ τὸ μένον, καὶ τὸ κινούμενον ὑπὸ"

### English translation (Claude)

And this, then, was what Timaeus hinted, assigning to each soul a companion star. And souls that have departed from their nature by lingering about matter, one less and one more, as each was unlucky in its inclination, have defiled their spirit. Settled in bodies in this condition, a whole life comes to be in sin and disease of the spirit — contrary to nature for the spirit, because of its first nobility, but according to nature for the living being, since it was ensouled by a spirit so disposed — unless the order into which it ranks itself by using vice or virtue is also nature for it. For nothing is so versatile as spirit. How, then, among things unlike in nature, in custom and in passion, could the same things be shown by the same images? It is not so, nor could it be. How could troubled water and clear, still and moving, be affected alike by

### Extrabiblical texts

- Plato, Tim. 41d-42b (Plato (works)): allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Plato, Timaeus 41d–42b (each soul assigned a kindred star); the OCR's ἄφρον is read as ἄστρον.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 360 (Krabinger 1:360; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/360).

## Krabinger p. 361

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-361
- Source: Krabinger 1:361
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Dream-book writers made their own imagination the rule for all, like ignoring the difference between straight and distorted mirrors.

### Greek text

τῇς αὐτῇ: μορφῆς ὁμοίως, διατεθῆναι; Εἰ δὲ καὶ ὁ θολὸς ἄλλος “Ὁ ἐν. ἄλλῳ. κατὰ διαφορὰς χρωμάτων καὶ" αἱ. κινήσεις κἐν σχηματισμοῖς - πλείοσιν, οὕτως ἂν ἕν μὲν εἴ τῳ γένει τὸ! ἁμαρτεῖν τῇς ἀκριβοῦς; εἰκόδνο;". Εἰ δ᾽ ἔσι διάφορον,᾿ εἴτ᾽ οὖν Φυμονόῃ τις, εἴξε τό δελαμπου;, εἴτε: ἕτερός «τις: ἀξιώσει καθ' ὅλου τι. περὶ τῶν. τοιούτων ἀφορίδειν καὶ “διατάττεσθαι,, πυθώμεθα. αὐτῶν εἰ φύσιν: ἔχει καὶ τὸ ὀρθὸν καὶ τὸ διάσροφον. κάτοπτρον, τό.τε ἐξ ἀνομοίων ὑλῶν ὅμοιον ἀκοδίδοναι τοῦ δεικνυμένου τὸ εἴδωλον. ᾿Αλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνοί γὲ οὐδὲ τὴν" ἀρχὴν, οἶμαι, πεφιλοσοφήκασί τι περὶ. τοῦ πνεύματο. «Τὸ δὲ οἰκεῖον αὐτῷ ὅπως ποτὲ ἔχον ἁπάντων ἠξίωσαν εἶναι. κανόνα καὶ γνώμονα. αὶ ἔγωγε οὐκ ἀναιρῶ 3.) τὸ καὶ διὰ πάντων εἶναι (αὶ 1ὅ τῶν διαφερόντων ἐμφέρειαν, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀσαφὲς διασπώμενον ἀσαφΐξερον γίνεται. Ἢν δὲ δήπου καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν δυρεπίγνωςον τὸ τοῦ προεκθορόντος πράγματος; εἴδωλον. "Ετι δὲ χαλεπώτερον ἑλεῖν ἐν. ἑκάτῳ τρόπῳ κοινῷ φαντάσματι παραπλήσιον.

### English translation (Claude)

the same shape? And if the turbidity differs from one to another in its colours, and the movements in their many patterns, then in each kind there would be a failure of the exact image. If it is different, then, whether some Phemonoe or someone else thinks fit to lay down universal rules about such things and set them in order, let us ask them whether a straight and a distorted mirror, made of unlike materials, naturally give back a like image of what is shown. But those people, I think, never did any philosophy at all about the spirit; they made their own, however it happened to be, the rule and measure for everyone. I do not deny that there is a likeness running through even things that differ; but what is unclear becomes more unclear when it is torn apart. And the image of the thing that has sprung forth was hard to recognize from the start; harder still to catch in each mode an image like a common phantasm.

### Translation notes

- "Some Phemonoe": the legendary Delphic prophetess to whom a dream-book was ascribed; the OCR of the names here is garbled and the reading is uncertain.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 361 (Krabinger 1:361; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/361).

## Krabinger p. 362

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-362
- Source: Krabinger 1:362
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Each person must build his own art by recording his dreams and their outcomes, keeping "night-books" beside his day-books.

### Greek text

ε 24. " τυ [ “5.9 ““Ζιὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἀπογνωείον τοῦ κοίνοὺς ἀθπαδι νόμουτ' γενέσθαι" ἑαυτὸν. δὲ τις ἢ "ἔκατσι. ὕλην ἐχέτω τῆς τίχννε" ἐγγραφέτω τῇ μνήμῃ, τίσι καὶ πότε -συνηὑνέχθη πράγμασιν ὅ), ἐπὶ ποδαπαὶ; ποτὲ 'ταῖς ὄψεσιν" ἢ ποὐ χαλεπῶς ἕξις ἀθροίξεται περὶ τὸ σὺν χρείᾳ “τινὶ μελετώμενον" ὑπομιμνήσκει γὰρ τῇ! μελέτῃς ἡ χρεία -καὶ μάλιτα ὅταν εὐπορῇ τῦι ὕλη, ἑκάτοτε, Τί δ᾽ ἂν ἐνυπνίων γένοιτο ἀφθονώτερον;.τί δ᾽ ἐπαγωγότερον;. ἃ καὶ τούς ἠλιθίου, ἐφέλκεται 'περὶ αὐτῶν 10τι φροντίσαι, “Ὥμε ᾽ αἰσχρὸν ἂν εἴν τοὐς τὰ δέκα ᾿άφ' ἥβη: γιγονόται ἑτέρου μάντεω, ἔτι. προϊδεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ μὴ παρ᾽ ἑαυτῶν ᾿᾽συνενηνοχέναι. τῇς τέχνης πάμπολλα 'θεωρήματα. - Σοφὸν δ᾽ ἂν εἴη καὶ γρά- "δ τφειν τά τε ὕπαρ καὶ ὄναρ ὁράματα καὶ συμπτώ- 1δάατα, εἰ μὴ πρὸς τὸ καινὸν τῇς ἐπινοίας ὁ τῆς πόλεως τρόπος ἀγροικιεῖται. ᾿Επεὶ ἡμεῖς ἀξιώσομεν ταῖς κα- 'λουμέναι; ἐφημερίσι τὰρ ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν ὀνομαδομένα; ἐπινυκτίδας συνάπτοντας ἔχειν τῇς ἐν ἑκατέρᾳ δωΐ διεξαγωγῇῆι ὑπομνήματα" ξωὴν γάρ τινα τὴν κατὰ φαν

### English translation (Claude)

For these reasons we must give up hope of common laws coming into being; but let each one have himself as the material of the art. Let him record in his memory with what events, and when, his visions coincided, and with what sort of visions. For a habit is gathered without difficulty around what is practised for some need; for the need reminds one of the practice, especially when the material is plentiful each time. And what could be more plentiful than dreams? What more enticing? They draw even fools to give them some thought. So it would be shameful for those who are ten years past youth still to need another seer, and not to have collected for themselves a great many theorems of the art. It would be wise also to write down the visions, waking and sleeping, and the coincidences, unless the city's way of life is boorish toward the novelty of the idea. For we shall think it right to join to the so-called day-books what we call night-books, so as to have memoranda of what passes in each of the two lives. For a life according to imagination

### Translation notes

- The section numbers (here 24) printed in the OCR are Krabinger's chapter divisions.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 362 (Krabinger 1:362; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/362).

## Krabinger p. 363

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-363
- Source: Krabinger 1:363
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: A dream journal aids the art of interpretation, is a pleasant self-history, and is the richest exercise in style.

### Greek text

τασίαν ὁ λόγος ἐτίθετο, νῦν μὲν βελτίω, νῦν δὲ χείρω τῆς μέσηι, ὡς ἂν ὑγιείας. ἔχῃ τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ νόσου. Οὕτως οὖν εἰς τὴν παρατήρησίν τι προῦργου ποιοῖμεν, ὑρ'. ᾧς ἡ τέχνῃ συναύξεται, οὐδενὸς Β "ἡμῖν ἐκ τῇ μνήμης διολισθαίνοντος, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἀςεία τις ἂν εἴη ψυχαγωγία ἱσορίᾳ τιμᾷν 'ἑαυτὸν ἐγρηγορότα τε καὶ καθεύδοντα.! ᾿Αλλὰ καὶ οἷς ἐπιμελές ἔτι τῆς γλώττης, οὐκ οἶδ᾽ εἴ τις ὑπόθεσις ἀνεὶ ταύτης ἱτίρα παντοδαπὸν ἂν γύμνασμα γένοιτο τῇρ ἐν τῷ λέγειν δυνάμεως. Εἰ γὰρ τὰς ἐφημερίδας ὁ 4ήἅινιος σοφιεὴς ἀγαθὰ; εἶναι διδασκάλους φησὶ τοῦ περὶ ἅπαντος εὖ εἰπεῖν τῷ μηδὲ τῶν μειόνων ὑφερορᾷν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀνάγκην εἶναι διὰ πάντων ἰέναι φαύλων. τεῦ καὶ σπουδαίων, πῶς οὐκ ἄξιον. ἄγεσθαι τὰς ἐπι νυκτίδας εἰς ἐρμιηνείας ὑπόθεσιν;

### English translation (Claude)

was posited by our account, now better and now worse than the middle, as the spirit has health or disease. In this way we should do something useful for the observation by which the art grows, with nothing slipping from our memory; and besides, it would be a refined entertainment to honour oneself with a history of oneself, waking and sleeping. And for those who care for style, I do not know whether any other subject would be a more varied exercise of the power of speaking. For if the Lemnian sophist says that day-books are good teachers of speaking well on every subject, since one may not look down even on lesser things but must go through all, trivial and serious, how is it not worth bringing night-books into the subject matter of expression?

### Translation notes

- The "Lemnian sophist" is Philostratus (compare Lives of the Sophists 2.33; Letter 73).

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 363 (Krabinger 1:363; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/363).

## Krabinger p. 364

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-364
- Source: Krabinger 1:364
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: To describe dreams in words, where impossible things are joined and named things vanish, would demand the most perfect rhetoric.

### Greek text

εἰ ᾿ “. ᾿ 25. ᾿ ει ἤδοι δ᾽ ἄν τις ὅσον τὸ ἔργον,, ἐπιχειρήσας ἢ) συμπαρατείνειν τὸν λόγον τοῖρ φάσμασιν, ὑφ᾽ ὧν χωρίδέεται μὲν τὰ φύσει συνόντα, συνάγεται δὲ τὰ φύσει κεχωρισμένα, καὶ δεῖ τῷ λόγῳ τὸν μὴ πεφαντασμένον ὅ φαντάσαι. ᾿Αλλ᾽ οὔτι γε φαῦλον τὸ ἔῤγον ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ γενόμενον ᾿ἀλλόκοτον κίνημα διαβιβάξδειν ἐφ᾽ ἕτερον. “Ὅταν δὲ τῇ φαντασίᾳ ἐξωθῆταί ὅ μὲν τοῦ εἶναι τὰ ὄντα, ἀντειάγηται δὲ εἰς τὸ εἶναι τὰ μηδαμῇ μηδαμῶς μήτε ὄντα, αὐτε φύσιν ἔχοντα εἶναι, τίς μη- Ὁ χανὴ τοῖς οἴκοθεν ἀνεννοήτος παραεῇσαι φύσιν ἀκατονόματον;.Ἢ δὲ ταῦτ᾽ οὔτε εἴδη πολλὰ καὶ ἅμα πάντα, οὐδὲ Ἢ σὺν χρόνῳ φέρουσα δείκνυσι" καὶ μὲν τοι ταῦτα ὅ), ὡ; ἂν ἔχῃ τε καὶ ὁρέγῃ τὸ ἐνύπνιον. Οἰόμεθα γὰρ ἅπαν ὅ τι ἂν βούληται. Ἔν οἷς ἢ ἅπασι καὶ τὸ διαγενέσθαι μὴ λίαν ἀσχημονοῦντα τελειοτάτῃ; ἂν εἴη ῥητορικῆς. ἹΝεανιεύεται δὲ ἡμῶν,

### English translation (Claude)

25. One would see how great the task is if one tried to stretch speech alongside the phantasms, by which things together by nature are separated and things separated by nature are brought together, and one must by speech make the one who has not had the vision imagine it. It is no slight task to carry over to another an outlandish motion that has arisen in the soul. When by imagination things that are are thrust out of being, and things that in no way are and have no nature to be are brought into being, what means is there to present to those who have no notion of them from within a nature that has no name? And it shows these things not as many forms at once, nor bringing them in with time; and these too, just as the dream has them and holds them out; for we believe whatever it wishes. In all of this, to come through without great unseemliness would belong to the most perfect rhetoric. It acts boldly against us,

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 364 (Krabinger 1:364; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/364).

## Krabinger p. 365

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-365
- Source: Krabinger 1:365
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Dreams move us powerfully, mixing love, hate and pleasure, and even dreams within dreams; only vivid words could convey them.

### Greek text

καὶ κατ᾽ αὐτῇς ἤδη τῇ! γνώμης, ἐνδιδοῦσά. τι πλέον τοῦ οἴεσθαι" οὐδὲ γὰρ' οὐδὲ 1.) ἀπαθῶς; διακείμεθα περὶ Α τὰ θεάματα, ἀλλ᾽ ἰσχυραὶ μὲν. αἱ συγκαταθέσεις τε καὶ προιπάθειαι, ἀποευγοῦμεν δὲ. οὐχ ἥκιτα,. καὶ. αἱ συχναὶ περὶ ταῦτα μαγγανεῖαι καθεύδουσιν ἐπιτίθενται,. ἢ τε ἡδονὴ τότε δὴ καὶ μάλιτα μειλιχώτατον, ὡςξ ἐναπομόργνυσθαι ταὶς ψυχαῖς μίσῃ καὶ ὶ ἔρωτα, εἰς, τὴν ὕπαρ ξωύν. ΄ Ἑὶ δή τις μέλλοι μὴ. ἄψυχα φθίγγεσθαι, ἀλλ᾽, ὅτου χάριν ἐσπουδάσθῃ ὁ λόγος, ἐπιτελεῖν, ἐν ταὐτῷ πάθει καὶ ταῖς αὐταῖς; ὑπολήψεσι καθιτάναι τὸν ἀκουσὴν, «κινουμένων. ἂν δέοιτο τῶν ῥημάτων. Ἤδη δέ χις ἅμα καὶ νικᾷ, καὶ βαδίξει; καὶ, ἵπταται ὅ, καὶ Β χωρεῖ πάντα καὶ φαντασία. Πῶς δ᾽ ἂν λέξις χωρύή.- 1ὅσειε; αὶ καθεύδει. τις ὄναρ, καὶ ὄναρ ὁρᾷ, καὶ διανέτῃ καθεύδων, ὡς; οἴεται ὃ), καὶ τὸν ὕπνον ἀπετινάἕξατο κείμενος, καὶ φιλοσοφεῖ τι περὶ τοῦ φανέντος ὀνείρου, καθὰ οἷδε, καὶ τοῦτο ὄνειρος, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνο διπλοῦς εἶτ᾽ ἀπιεεῖ, καὶ οἴεται τὸ παρὸν ὕπαρ εἶναι οο»αὶ δῇν τὰ φαινόμενα. Ἐντεῦθεν ἀνὰ κράτος ἡ

### English translation (Claude)

even against our judgment, giving something more than mere belief. For we are not unaffected by the sights: our assents and our feelings in advance are strong, we hate not least, many trickeries about these things assail sleepers, and pleasure is then above all at its sweetest, so that hatred and love rub off onto our souls into waking life. So if someone is not to utter lifeless words, but to accomplish what the speech was laboured for — to put the hearer into the same feeling and the same suppositions — he would need moving words. A man at once both wins, and walks, and flies, and imagination holds it all; how could diction hold it? And a man sleeps a dream and sees a dream, and gets up while asleep, as he thinks, and shakes off sleep while lying down, and philosophizes as he can about the dream that appeared; and this too is a dream, a double one. Then he disbelieves, and thinks the present to be waking and what appears to be alive. From this, by force, the

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 365 (Krabinger 1:365; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/365).

## Krabinger p. 366

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-366
- Source: Krabinger 1:366
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: In dreams one flies past eagles to the spheres, speaks with stars and sees the gods, leaping without passing through what lies between.

### Greek text

λιπεῖν τε καὶ διεγείρεσθαι, καὶ πεῖραν λαβεῖν ἑαυτοῦ. καὶ τήν ἀπάτην φωρᾶσαι ὅ). Οἱ μὲν οὖν ᾿Αλωάδαι κολάξονται, τὰ Θετταλῶν ὄρῃ τοῖρ θεοῖς ἐπιτειχίξον- ΓΟ ὅ τες 1.) καθεύδοντι δὲ οὐδεὶν "Αδρατείας νόμος ἐμποδὼν τὸ μὴ οὐκ ἀπᾶραι τῆς γῇ! εὐτυχέξερον ᾿Ικάρου, καὶ ὑπερπτῆναι μὲν ἀετούς, ὑπεράνω δὲ καὶ αὐτῶν γενέσθαι τῶν ἀνωτάτω σφαιρῶν. [αὶ τὴν γὴν τις ἀποσκοπεῖται πόῤῥωθεν, καὶ οὐδ᾽ ὁρωμένην τῇ σελήνῃ σημαίνεται. "Ἐξεει δὲ καὶ ἄςρασι διαλέγεσθαι, καὶ “τοῦς ᾿ἀφανέσιν ἐν κόσμῳ συνεῖναι θεοῖ. Τό γέ τοι " χαλεπόν λεγόμενον τότε ῥάδιον γίνεται" θεοὶ φαίνονται ἐναργεῖν᾽" οὐδὲ τούτων μέντοι φθόνος οὐδὲ εἶρ. Μετὰ γὰρ μικρὸν ἐπὶ γῇ: οὐδὲ ἦλθεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἔστινς Οὐδὲν Ὁ 156 γὰρ οὕτως ἐνυπνίων ὦ; τὸ κλέψαι τό ἐν μέσῳ, καὶ

### English translation (Claude)

… to leave off, and wake up, and test oneself and detect the deceit. The Aloadae are punished for piling the mountains of Thessaly as siege-works against the gods; but no law of Adrasteia prevents the sleeper from rising from the earth more happily than Icarus, flying over eagles, and coming above even the highest spheres. One views the earth from far off, and points it out to the moon, though it is not even seen. One may converse with the stars and be with the invisible gods in the cosmos. What is said to be hard then becomes easy: the gods appear manifest; nor is there any jealousy of them. For a little after, the dreamer did not even come to earth, but is there. For nothing so belongs to dreams as to steal away what lies between, and

### Extrabiblical texts

- Homer, Od. 11.305-320 (Homer, Odyssey): allusion, medium confidence
- Homer, Il. 20.131 (Homer, Iliad): allusion, medium confidence

### Translation notes

- The Aloadae: Odyssey 11.305–320. "The gods appear manifest" reverses Iliad 20.131 ("hard are the gods to behold when they appear manifest").

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 366 (Krabinger 1:366; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/366).

## Krabinger p. 367

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-367
- Source: Krabinger 1:367
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Fables, where animals speak, borrow their freedom from dreams; writing dreams would crown rhetorical training and sharpen judgment.

### Greek text

μὴ σὺν χρόνῳ ποιῆσαι" εἶτα 'προβατέοις τε διαλέγεξαι, καὶ τὴν βλῃχὴν ἡγεῖται 'φωνὴν,' καὶ λεγόντων ἔυνίησιν. «Οὕτω μὲν καινὸν, οὕτω δὲ πολὺ τὸ πλάτος τῶν ὑκοθέσεων; εἴ τιρ αὐταῖς ἐπαφιέναι τοὺς λόγους θαρσήσειεν.. ᾿Εγὼ μὲν γὰρ οἶμαι καὶ τοὺ μύθου;.. ἐξουσίαν παρὰ τῶν ἐφυπνίων λαβεῖν, οἷς καὶ ταὼς, καὶ ἀλώπηξ', καὶ -θάλαττα φθέγγονται.. λίγα ταῦτα πρὸ τὴν αὐτονομίαν τῶν ὕπνων. ᾿Αλλὰ καίπερ. ἐλα- 1δῦ αίρῃ μερὶς τῶν ἰνυπνίων ὄντες οἱ μῦθοι, ὅμως ὑπὸ τῶν σοφιςῶν ἡγαπήθησαν εἰς πάρασκευὴν ἑρμηνεία!. Καίτοιγε οἷ, ἀρχὴ τῆς τέχνην ὁ μῦθος, πρίδον ἄν ᾿γέψοιῖο τέχος ἱνύκνιον᾽ καὶ: πρόμεσι τὸ μὴ μάτην ἠσκηκέναι τήν᾽ γλῶτταν, ὦ!περ ἐπὶ τῶν μὔθων:; ἀλλ᾽ εἶναι παὶ ὁ γνώμῃς σοφώτερον. ΓΗ - 7. !

### English translation (Claude)

not to do things in time. Then the dreamer converses with sheep, takes their bleating for speech, and understands what they say. So novel and so broad is the range of subjects, if anyone dared to let his words loose upon them. I think fables too took their licence from dreams, in which the peacock, the fox and the sea speak. These are little beside the free rule of sleep. But though fables are a lesser part of dreams, the sophists loved them as training in expression. And yet, for those to whom fable is the beginning of the art, the dream would become its end; and it is possible not to have trained the tongue in vain, as with fables, but to be wiser in judgment as well.

### Translation notes

- The last words of the page are garbled in the OCR.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 367 (Krabinger 1:367; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/367).

## Krabinger p. 368

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-368
- Source: Krabinger 1:368
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Writing dreams would suit rhetors better than declamations on fictitious cases, which even bearded philosophers argue with absurd passion.

### Greek text

λασόφῳ μὲν γὰρ ἂν.) γένοιτο παίγνιον, χαλῶντι τοῦ τόνου δ), καθάπερ οἱ Σκύθαι τὰ τόξα΄. ῥήτορι δὲ αὐτὴν ἐπιτάξωμεν κολοφῶνα τῶν ἐπιδείξεων. : Ὡς οὐκ δὲν καιρῷ μοι δοκοῦσιν ἐμμελετᾷν τὴν δεινότητα διλτιάδῃ καὶ Είμωνι, καί τισι καὶ ἀνωνύμοι,, καὶ πλουσίῳ καὶ πένητι, τὰ" ἐκ πολιτείας ἐχθροῖς, ὑπὲρ ὦν, ἐγὼ α ᾿ καὶ πρεσβύτας ἀνθρώπους εἶδον,ἐν θεάτρῳ δυγομαχοῦντα ἉἙαίτοιγε ) ἤστην ἐπὶ φιλοσοφίᾳ μάλα. σεμνὼώ, καὶ εἱλκέτην ἑκάτερος αὐτοῖν ὃ; ὡς εἰκάσαι, τάλαντα πώγωνος ν.)" ἀλλ᾽͵ οὐδὲν αὐτανν ἐκώλυσεν καὶ σεμνό- Γ λοιδοιρεῖσθαί τε καὶ ἀγανακτεῖν, καὶ «τω. χεῖρε σπερίδινεῖν ἀκόσμως ἐν τῷ διαείθεσθθαι λόγους ᾿ἀποτάδη)ν ᾽Ὁ ὑπὲρ ἀνδρῶν, ὡς μὲν ἐγὼ τότε ᾧμῃν, ἐπιτηδείων, ὡς δὲ ἔφασαν οἱ μεταδιδάξαντες, οὔτε ὄντων, οὔτε γενο-͵ μένων ποτὲ, μθ ὅτι ἐκιφθέων, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν Ὁ

### English translation (Claude)

For to a philosopher it would be a plaything, slackening his tension, as the Scythians do their bows; but for the rhetor let us assign it as the crowning piece of his displays. For they seem to me to practise their skill out of season on Miltiades and Cimon, and on certain nameless figures, a rich man and a poor man, enemies in politics — about whom I have seen even old men wrangling in the theatre. Yet both of them were very solemn in philosophy, and each, as one might guess, trailed talents' weight of beard; but nothing prevented them from reviling and being angry, and swinging their hands about disorderly as they delivered speeches on behalf of men — real men, as I then thought, but, as those who taught me otherwise said, men who neither existed nor ever came to be — I do not say perished, but never existed at all

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 368 (Krabinger 1:368; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/368).

## Krabinger p. 369

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-369
- Source: Krabinger 1:369
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Declaimers mistake practice for the goal, speaking much with nothing to say; Alcaeus and Archilochus wrote of their own lives and are remembered.

### Greek text

ἐν τῇ φύσει. Ποὺ γὰρ ἀν. εἴη καὶ. πολιτεία τοι αὐτῃ, γέρας ἀριτεὶ διδοῦσα κτεῖναι πολίτην ἀντιπολιτευόμενον; Ἑαίτοιγε ὅετι; ἐνενηκοντούτη;. ὧν πλάσμα ἀγωνίξεται, εἰς ποῖον καὶρὸν ἀνατίθεται. τὴν δτῶν λόγων ἀλήθειαν; “Ὅλως δὲ οὐδὲ ἐπαΐειν μοι δοκοῦσι τοῦ τῇ, μελέτης ὀνόματοι, «ὅτι φησὶ δι᾽ ἄλλο σπουδάξεσθθαι" οἱ δὲ τὴν παρασκευὴν τέλος ἤγῃνται, καὶ τὴν ὁδὸν, ὦ; ἐφ᾽ ὃ δεὶ βαδίζειν, ἠγάπησαν" " τὴν γὰρ μελέτην ἀγῶνα πεποίηνται, ὦϊπερ εἴ τις ἐν γ56 10παλαΐίτρᾳ χειρονομῆῇσα;, ἀξιώσει παγκράτιον ἐν ᾽Ολυμι- Α πίᾳ κηρύττεσθαι. Τοσοῦτο, ἄρα νοῦ μὲν αὐχμὸς, ἐπομβρία δὲ λεξέων τοὺς ἀνθρώπους κατέσχεν, ὦ; εἷναί τινας," οἱ δύνανται λέγειν, οὐκ ἔχοντες ὅ τι δεῖ λίγειν, δέον ἀπολαύειν ἑαυτῶν, ὥπερ ᾿Αλκαϊόρ τε καὶ ᾿ἀρχίλοχος, οἱ δεδαπανήκασι τὴν εὐτομίαν᾽ εἰς τὸν Ὁ οἰκεῖον βίον ἑκάτερος. αὶ τοίνυν ἡ διαδοχὴ τὸὐῦ χρό-Β, ) τὴν μνήμην ᾿ὧν τε.ἤλγῃσαν, ὧν τε ὕσθηνου τηρεῖ Ξ σαν. ᾿ Οὔτε γὰρ κενεμβατοῦντα; τοὺς λόγουξ ἐξήνεγκαν, ὦιπερ τὸ νέον τοῦτο τὸ σοφὸν γένος ἐπὶ λθσυμπεπλασμέναις ταῖς ὑποθέσεσιν, οὔτε ἑτέροι! κατε-

### English translation (Claude)

in nature. For where could there be a constitution that gives the best citizen the prize of killing a fellow-citizen who opposed him in politics? And yet a man of ninety who contends over a fiction — to what occasion does he postpone the truth of his speeches? In general they seem to me not even to understand the name of their "exercise," which says that it is pursued for the sake of something else; they think the preparation is the end, and have loved the road as though it were where one must go. For they have made the exercise a contest, as if someone who had shadow-boxed in the palaestra should claim to be proclaimed victor in the pancration at Olympia. So great a drought of mind and downpour of words has taken hold of people, that there are some who can speak but have nothing they need to say, when they ought to enjoy themselves as Alcaeus and Archilochus did, who each spent their eloquence on their own lives. And so the succession of time keeps the memory of what they grieved at and what they rejoiced in. For they did not produce speeches treading on air, as this new clever race does on fabricated subjects, nor did they

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 369 (Krabinger 1:369; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/369).

## Krabinger p. 370

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/synesius-de-insomniis/342/#p-370
- Source: Krabinger 1:370
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27

Summary: Homer and Stesichorus glorified others and are themselves unknown; whoever seeks lasting fame should write of his own life and dreams and trust to time.

### Greek text

χαρίσαντο. τὸ σφέτερον ἀγαθὸν, ὦιπερ “Ομηρος καὶ Στησίχορος τὸ “μὲν ἡρωϊκὸν φῦλον διὰ τὰς ποιήσεις αὐτῶν ἐπικυδέξερον ἔθεσαν" καὶ ἡμεῖς ὠνάμεθα τοῦ ἄφλου τῇς ἀρετῇ" αὐτοὶ δὲ τὸ γε" ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτοῖς ἡμελή- Ὁ ἤθησαν, περὶ ὧν οὐδὲν ἔχομεν εἰπεῖν, δ) ὅτι ποιηταὶ “δεξιοί. Οιτις οὖν ἐρᾷ τοῦ παρ᾽ ἀνθρώποις εἰς ἔπειτα λόγου, καὶ σύνοιδεν ἑαυτῷ δυναμένῳ τίκτειν ἐν δὲλτοις ἀθάνατα, μετίτω τὴν παρανομουμένην ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν ὃ συγγραφήν. Θαῤῥῶν ἑαυτὸν παρατιθέσθω τῷ χρόνῳ. 10᾽.4γαθόὸ; ἐστι φύλαξ, ὅταν κατὰ θεόν τι πιεεύηται 3').

### English translation (Claude)

give away their own good to others, as Homer and Stesichorus made the race of heroes more glorious by their poems, and we have profited from the prize of their virtue; but they themselves, as far as it lay with them, were neglected, and we have nothing to say of them except that they were skilled poets. Whoever, then, loves to be spoken of among people hereafter, and is conscious that he can bring forth immortal things on tablets, let him pursue the kind of writing that we are introducing against custom. Let him confidently entrust himself to time. It is a good guardian, when something is entrusted to it in accordance with God.

### Citation (SBL)

Synesius, Insomn. 370 (Krabinger 1:370; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/synesius-de-insomniis/370).