Land of dreams (mythology)

[2] Homer locates the land past the streams of Oceanus, the world-encircling river, and the gates of the Sun, close to the Fields of Asphodel, where the spirits of the dead reside.

[3] Described as "the land where reality ends and everything is fabulous", the district of dreams is situated by the stream of Oceanus, the physical boundary in cosmic space, beyond which lies the realm of images and ghosts.

It lies past the stream of Oceanus, which represented the boundary in cosmic space, beyond which the real world ends and the land of phantasy and ghosts begins.

They seem to have several parallels in Homeric texts; the souls (psychae) enter the underworld through the gates, the same ones as the sun when it sets, while Hades himself is described as pylartes ("the gate-closer").

[12] In general, the White Rock was often used in ancient Greek tradition allegorically, in order to symbolise the boundary that delimits the conscious and the unconscious, be it a trance, stupor, sleep, or even death.

This passage has raised a great deal of scholarly debate, starting already from antiquity, particularly regarding Homer's choice of words in order to describe the material of the gates.

This resemblance either made it seemingly appear as if the verbs were etymologically derived from the respective nouns,[16] or perhaps the choice was merely a word play for literary purposes, which subsequently cannot be preserved in English.

[18] Ovid mentions the existence of multiple Dreams (Somnia), who were sons of Sleep, moving around him in all directions taking unsubstantial forms and various shapes.