For the ancient Greeks, dreams hid messages that were sometimes difficult to interpret, sometimes deceptive, but which should not be dismissed. Morpheus was the Greek god in charge of suggesting those dreamsin some of which he managed to enter in human form.
For the mortals who populate the Earth, life would be much harder if they did not have a few hours in which they lose consciousness of everything and body and soul can free themselves from worries and surrender to a more than well-deserved rest. The person responsible for this being so is Hypnos, the Dreama god who does not act alone, but does so accompanied by the vast progeny born from his union with Nix, the Night: the thousand Oniros or personifications of dreams. The most important of them is Morpheus.
God Morpheus, one of the thousand children of Dream
Like his brothers, Morpheus lived in a cave in Erebusthe personification of Darkness and Shadow, who stood at the western end of the Ocean. Thence, The Oniros left every night to bring their dreams to humans. They did it through two doors: one, made of ivory, gave way to false dreams; the other, of horn, to the true ones.
Equipped with wings that allowed him to reach the edge of the world in an instant and without making a sound, Morpheus was the one who led that group, because he was the responsible for inducing dreams to those who slept.
To this faculty he added another no less estimable one: if other of his brothers were capable of transforming themselves into beasts, snakes and birds, or into earth, stone, water or tree, Morpheus was skilled in imitate the gait, features and even the timbre of voice of humans.
The god Morpheus sends messages through dreams
That quality allowed Morpheus to enter dreams and provide comfort or even some happiness when their appearance coincided with that of someone dear to the sleeper. Sometimes, it was the gods who resorted to that faculty of theirs to transmit, through dreams, a message.
The most famous myth in which Morpheus appears has to do precisely with that role of dream messenger. It deals with the history of Alcíone, a young woman whose husband Ceix had left home to consult an oracle. Ceix did not get very far, as he drowned when the ship he was traveling on was surprised by a storm. But, unaware of this fact, Alcyone approached the seashore every day to wait for her husband’s return.
In the end, so much time passed that despair took its toll on her and the gods, moved by her love, decided that Morpheus conveyed the fatal news to him.
This is how Morpheus did it: he took the form of Ceix, but pale and without clothes, all of him soaked, and in that way He entered Alcyone’s dream to announce his death.. It turned out to be so convincing that she believed that her husband’s own shadow was the one visiting her.
Morpheus and healing dreams
The ability to transmit messages through dreams gave Morpheus an essential role in the sanctuaries dedicated to Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing.
In these sanctuaries a technique known by the Greek name of enkoimesis (“sleep in the temple”) or the Latin of incubationwhich consisted of the sick person, after having completed a series of purification rituals, donations and prayers to Asclepius, lying down in the portico of the temple. Over there, Morpheus would make him fall asleep and, in collaboration with Asclepius, I would suggest the Remedies that should be followed to achieve healing.