Dream Cults in the Roman Ruins
I recently had the opportunity to visit Rome and see several sites and artifacts associated with the Greco-Roman and Egyptian dream incubation cults of Asclepius and Isis. Originating in Ancient Greece, the cult of Asclepius focused around the practice of sleeping in temples and incubating dreams in which the god of healing either suggested cures or directly performed surgeries. Due to the close borrowing between Grecian and Egyptian cultures, the worship of Isis spread through Greece and had a similar practice of temple dream incubation that rivaled that of Asclepius. The Romans continued and further spread these practices, both due to visits of emperors like Hadrian to the main Asclepian temples at Pergamon and Cos, as well as the adoption of Asclepius’s powers of healing and protection by the Roman military. Isis meanwhile was given a place in the Roman pantheon in association with Diana. The dream practices at these temples were so popular that they were some of the last pagan pr