s the meaning of the dream could be prophetic, giving information about the future. Even today the lower strata of our society do not make the mistake of underestimating dreams; like the ancients they expect dreams to reveal the future (Rosenzweig 419). Thirdly the dreams could be sent from external sources that served as bearers of messages. This external source was generally a god (Robbins 4).
             This contrasts sharply with the modern view of dreams, which sees them as products of the subconscious. According to Freud's "wish fulfillment" theory, dreams are meant, as Rod Plotnik explains, "to satisfy unconscious desires or wishes, especially those involving sex or aggression" (Plotnik 148). In no way does Freud believe that these desires necessarily will be acted upon. Homeric Greeks believed in two different kinds of dreams: ota, the great vision, big meaningful, and of collective importance; and vudota, the ordinary small dream (Jung 4). These Swahili words used by Jung perfectly categorize the Greek epic dream by separating the big important dreams from the lesser more common ones. The Greeks usually deny having the ordinary dream. Great and important dreams are very rare, and only the most important of men have them. Our usual prejudice against dreams is probably just the old primitive tradition that the ordinary dreams are not worth noticing (Jung 4). This synopsis of ancient dream interpretations by Jung gives the reader a better idea as to why the Greeks were willing to follow their dreams so adamantly; they simply disregarded the "meaningless" dreams. This is unlike today, where the direct interpretation of dreams has been replaced by symbolic meanings of every slight detail with less emphasis on the interpretation of the dream as a whole.
             Based upon these interpretations, both the ancient and the modern, the actions of the dreamer are either validated or manipulated by the drea...