Tony Crisp Interpretation:
Dreams were classified into several types. Those of rulers and leaders such as priests were seen as one type, and those of common people as another. There was also a division between good dreams and bad dreams. If you go into any large bookstore and look at dream dictionaries written before the advent of modern psychotherapy, it can easily be seen that most definitions are still written in the same style—that the dream will bring good or bad luck regarding money, romance, or health. In fact, they are derivations of the ancient Babylonian dream books. These speculations, observations, and collection of folk beliefs were put into book form by the Babylonians, and are thought to have contained texts on dreams dating back to 5000 b.c. These ancient Babylonian dream dictionaries were copied and taken to the library at Nineveh by King Ashurbanipal. The great dream encyclopedist Artemidorus later drew on these records for his own learning. The part of the Jewish Talmud that was written during the Babylonian captivity is also full of dream interpretations and ways of dealing with dreams, and undoubtedly drew on the Babylonian library. Babylonian culture also produced one of the great, and certainly the oldest, literary works that includes a series of dreams. This is the Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates from about 2000 b.c. and is the oldest hero account. It is the story of how the king, Gilgamesh, searches for immortality, having lost his friend Enkidu. See .
Based on the beliefs of early cultures such as the Australian aborigines and the Kalahari bushmen, we can be certain dreams were an important part of the life of early human beings. The earliest known record of dreams is recorded in the epic poem Gilgamesh, that is four thousand years old. The text includes an account of a series of dreams. See American Indian dream beliefs; analysis of dreams; Australian aborigine dream beliefs; Buddhism and dreams; Greece (ancient) dream beliefs; religion and dreams; Islamic dream traditions.