Dream Narratives in Plutarch’s Lives: The Place of Fiction in Biography

Fournel, Eugénie; Liotsakis, Vasileios; Farrington, Scott

doi:10.1515/9783110496055-011

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Life Of Demosthenes1

Introduction1

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2023

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“…37 Mossman (1999) anticipates this argument, framing the Life of Demosthenes as an exploration of rhetoric gone wrong. Fournel (2016) discusses Pompey's dream in the Life of Pompey, which also takes place in a theatre. 38 Rose ( 2003) 50-65.…”

Section: Life Of Demosthenesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5 Pelling (1997b) 199. 6 This approach is anticipated by Fournel (2016), who focuses on the Lives of Caesar and Pompey, and Romero-González (2019b), who analyses the dreams of Pausanias, Cinna and Gaius Gracchus. These are all Roman Lives for which comparative material from other ancient authors survives; less has been written about the Greek Lives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dreams in Plutarch’sLivesof Alcibiades and Demosthenes

Catenaccio

2023

J. Hell. Stud.

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This article argues that the ante mortem dreams of Alcibiades and Demosthenes articulate key themes of moral doubt in Plutarch’s biography of each man. Alcibiades’ dream of being dressed as a courtesan alludes to his uneasy stance between masculine and feminine postures; Demosthenes’ dream of himself as a failed tragic actor draws upon his lifelong concern with performance and insincerity. In these two Lives, Plutarch deploys the ambiguity and uncertainty of dreams to pose an interpretive problem for the reader which can never fully be resolved, particularly appropriate to these unpredictable and untrustworthy men.

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Section: Life Of Demosthenesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%