The dream in ancient Egypt functioned as a liminal zone between the land of the living and the afterlife. However, the dream was also a phenomenon over which the dreamer had little control, and its permeable boundaries allowed both the divine and the demonic inhabitants of the beyond access to the visible world. Sometimes the result was a positive beneficial experience, as is attested in royal texts and elite hymns that relate the awe-inspiring contact a dreamer could have with a god or a goddess. But another more disturbing belief was that dreams could allow the vulnerable sleeper to be watched or even assaulted by the hostile dead. While today we call these events ‘anxiety dreams’ or ‘nightmares’ and consider them psychological phenomena, the Egyptians blamed them on external monsters or demons crossing over from the other side. These entities included the dead, and here it appears that the line between the justified transfigured dead and the malevolent unjustified dead might not have been an immutable one. Drawing upon both textual and material evidence primarily from the New Kingdom, we explore the identity and nature of the hostile entities who dared to disturb the sleep of the living. Surviving prescriptions, and apotropaic devices attest to the prevalent fear of nightmares while the intricate steps one could take to ensure safety in the night emphasize the tangible nature of these fears. To protect themselves against such demons of the dark, sleeping mortals could access the same potent energies that restored order and kept at bay the chaotic enemies of the sun-god himself.
About the speaker:
Kasia Szpakowska is currently the W. Benson Harer Egyptology Scholar in Residence at California State University, San Bernardino. After earning her PhD at UCLA, she was the Associate Professor of Egyptology at Swansea University, Wales and director of the Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project: 2nd Millennium BCE. Her research focuses on private religious practices, dreams, gender and the archaeology of magic. Currently she is investigating the role of apotropaic devices and images of supernatural beings as mechanisms for coping with physical and mental health afflictions. Her research has expanded to explore whether “ages of anxiety” can be recognized in the archaeological record through unexpected developments in and production of new types of ritual paraphernalia, iconography and archetypes. She has authored several books and edited volumes, including most recently, Demon Things: Ancient Egyptian Manifestations of Liminal Entities. She enjoys actively engaging the public through museum events, demonthings.com, and from summer 2021 can be found on YouTube as the Rambling Egyptologist.
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