Gendering animals. Feminine and masculine species in Artemidorus’ "Interpretation of dreams". Part two

Cristiana Franco

Abstract:

This second part of the study starts with a focus on animal species treated as gendered pairs in Artemidorus’ Oneirocritica. It then tackles the particularly complex question of the gender of the goose (χήν) and analyzes cases of discrepancy between the gender of the zoonym and the sex of the person predicated by the animal symbol that seem to contradict the principle of congruency applied to most interpretations of dreams in the treatise. A conclusion provides some general remarks on the relationship between grammatical gender of Greek zoonyms and the gendered characterization of the species and shows that, while influential, grammatical gender does not entirely determine the treatment of the animal symbol in Artemidorus’ hermeneutic practice.