Pharaoh's Dream: The Role Of Joseph In The Hebrew Bible

For thousands of years, dreams have been the biggest wonder of scientists, philosophers, and many others. Sigmund Freud notes that “in spite of thousands of years of endeavour, little progress has been made in the scientific understanding of dreams”(Freud 1). Despite a lack of scientific understanding of dreams, there is a great understanding of the various ways that dreams were utilized in ancient literature. There were many different ways dreams were used, however one of the most notable is that in ancient literature dreams were used as a way to give the story a nudge in order to move it along. Two instances of dreams being used as plot pushers is in the story of Joseph in the Hebrew Bible. When Joseph is locked up in prison in Egypt, both
Had Pharaoh never dreamed this dream, he would have had no reason to call upon Joseph for an interpretation of the dream. As a result, Joseph would have been stuck in prison and most likely never gotten out. Both the butler’s dream and Pharaoh’s dreams help the story progress and get Joseph to one of the highest powers in Egypt. Had Pharaoh not dreamed his dream, he would have had the need for an interpreter, and as a result have no need to let Joseph out of prison. Had the butler never dreamed his dream, he never would’ve known about Joseph’s ability and thus not been able to let Pharaoh know about Joseph and his ability to interpret dreams. In both instances, dreams played an integral role in pushing the story along and giving reason for Joseph to rise up out of prison and into power. Later on in Ancient Greece, Homer uses dreams in the Iliad in order to help get his story of the Trojan war kicked off. In the second books of his epic, Zeus sends a dream down to Agamemnon, in which the likeness of Nestor appears to him and says,
Zeus bids you arm the flowing-haired Achaeans for
As the city of Troy is being taken over by the Achaeans, Hector visits Aeneas in a dream and tells him, “the enemy holds the city walls, and from her height Troy falls in ruin… go find for them the great walls that one day you’ll dedicat, when you have roamed the sea”(Virgil 2.388-390, 396-397). Virgil uses this dream as a means to send Aeneas on his journey out of Troy and on to find Rome. As Pulcheria Kyriakou notes, “The dream is also pivotal in justifying Aeneas’ flight from Troy and legitimizing his position as the founder of a new home for Troy”(Kyriakou 320). The dream as a whole is used by Virgil to give an explanation as to why Aeneas abandoned Troy in order to leave so that he doesn’t look like a coward, as well as providing the stepping stone needed in order to move onto the next phase of the story. Following the dream, Virgil begins to write about how Aeneas gathered up people to flee Troy and work towards finding the new city he is destined to find. Without the dream, Virgil would have a difficult time explaining why it is that Aeneas left the city of Troy behind in order to find the new city without making him seem like a coward. In this instance the dream helps Virgil progress the story without making Aeneas look like a coward who abandoned Troy with no justifiable