Artemidorus Interprets the Dream of Mordecai (Additions to Esther A and F)

Abstract

The Alpha Text (AT) and Old Greek (OG) versions of Esther include six chapter-length passages—the “Additions”—not paralleled in the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) of Esther. In Addition A, Mordecai sees a dream marked by battle cries, confusion, thunder, earthquake, chaos, a pair of dragons, preparations for war, darkness and gloom, affliction and anguish, and an outcry to God from a frightened nation of righteous people. A small spring emerges from the outcry and turns into a mighty river, which consumes those held in esteem. Addition F offers a limited interpretation of several elements of this dream but leaves much of the dream uninterpreted. This paper offers a fresh perspective on the Addition A dream and its relationship to the plot of both AT- and OG-Esther in light of Artemidorus’s Oneirocritica, a second-century CE handbook of dream interpretation.