Book 2, Chapter 70

144 “And do not the interpreters’ own conjectures reveal their ingenuity rather than nature’s power and harmony? A runner planning to go to Olympia dreamed he was riding in a four-horse chariot. In the morning, off he went to an interpreter. ‘You will win,’ the man said: ‘that is what the horses’ speed and strength signify.’ Afterward he went to Antiphon. ‘You must lose,’ Antiphon said. ‘Do you not see that four ran ahead of you?’ Here is another runner—and Chrysippus’s book is full of dreams of this sort, as is Antipater’s—but to return to the runner: he reported to an interpreter that he had dreamed of becoming an eagle. ‘Victory is yours,’ the interpreter said. ‘No bird flies with greater force.’ To the same man Antiphon said, ‘You fool, do you not see that you have lost? That bird is always last itself as it pursues and chases other birds.’

145 “A married woman who longed to give birth but was unsure whether she was pregnant dreamed that her genitals were sealed shut. She reported it. The interpreter said she could not have conceived, since she had been sealed. Another, however, said she was pregnant, since people do not generally put a seal on anything empty. What art is there in an interpreter’s clever trickery? Do the examples I have given, and the countless others the Stoics have collected, signify anything beyond the ingenuity of men who take some resemblance and turn their conjecture now this way, now that? Doctors have certain signs in a patient’s pulse and breathing, and from many other things they foresee what is to come. Helmsmen, seeing squid leap or dolphins dart into harbor, think a storm is foretold. These signs can readily be explained by reason and traced to nature; the things I mentioned a moment ago cannot possibly be.

144 “And don't the interpreters' guesses reveal their own cleverness more than the force and harmony of nature? A runner planning to go to Olympia dreamed that he was riding in a four-horse chariot. Next morning he consulted an interpreter, who told him, ‘You are going to win.’ ‘That is what the horses' speed and strength mean.’ Then he went to Antiphon. ‘You must lose,’ he said. ‘Don't you understand that four ran ahead of you?’ Here is another runner—Chrysippus' book is full of dreams like these, and so is Antipater's. But back to the runner. He told an interpreter that he had dreamed he had become an eagle. ‘You have won,’ the man said. ‘No bird flies more powerfully than that one.’ Antiphon told the same man, ‘You fool, don't you see that you have lost? That bird hunts and chases other birds, so it is always last itself.’

145 “A married woman wanted to have a child but was unsure whether she was pregnant. She dreamed that her genitals were sealed shut and reported it to an interpreter. The interpreter ruled out conception on the grounds that her genitals were sealed. But another said she was pregnant, since people do not normally seal anything empty. What kind of art is this, when an interpreter uses his cleverness to deceive? Do the examples I have given, and the countless ones the Stoics have collected, show anything except the ingenuity of people who use some resemblance to draw a guess now one way, now another? Doctors have certain signs from a patient's pulse and breathing, and foresee what will happen from many other things. When helmsmen see squid leaping or dolphins rushing into harbor, they think this signals a storm. These things can easily be explained by reason and traced back to nature. The examples I gave a little earlier cannot be, at all.