We have all dreamt., and these may be some familiar scenes: mash ups of scenes and settings familiar to us, but which aren’t normally connected in our lives; the just plain weird; the being late dream; the exam paper that isn’t what you were actually revising; the escape you can’t quite achieve; the scene that seems to have got stuck and goes on and on with no clear end. This last makes me recall what I always found that slightly eerie line in the wonderful song ‘Windmills of your Mind’:
'Like a door that keeps revolving in a half-forgotten dream…’
Does the door every get closed or is the dream halted there, because you woke up or…well I don’t know.
The following is another very powerful description of a dream scenario - the target that you almost catch, but which forever eludes your grasp:
' Just as in a dream in sleep when one man running in pursuit cannot give chase, and the
other can’t escape, just as the first man can’t catch him.’
The cycle of disappointed pursuer and constant fugitive persists and never comes to completion.
But this is from no song. It describes the incredibly tense moment where Achilles makes his triple pursuit of Hector around Troy, before Hector turns to face his deadly enemy. The two best warriors finally and their almost even skills makes the chase like an unfinished dream.
The power of the simile in context is evident. It conveys the power of the two warriors and the fact that Hector is not in a dream and cannot escape forever. He will fall at the hands of Achilles.
But once again, I want to highlight the lucid perception of Homer, poet of the Iliad, and whoever he or they were. This is exactly what dreams are like. They reflect a reality captured in the mind that goes round and round, but is never finished.
Such accurate genius cannot be ignored. We forget these incredible works at our peril.
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