On Dreams that "dreames are caused by the distemper of some inward parts of the Body." He thought this explanation would further help in understanding different types of dreams, for example, "lying cold breedeth Dreams of Feare, and raiseth the thought and Image of some fearfull object." The neurologist Sigmund Freud cited Aristotle in his 1899 work, "The Interpretation of Dreams", as the first to recognize that dreams "do not arise from supernatural manifestations but follow the laws of the human spirit." He held Aristotle's definition of dreams to be "the mental activity of the sleeper in so far as he is
Dream interpretation waking beliefs and desires. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia have left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 3100 BC. Throughout Mesopotamian history, dreams were always held to be extremely important for divination and Mesopotamian kings paid close attention to them. Gudea, the king of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash (reigned 2144–2124 BC), rebuilt the temple of Ningirsu as the result of a dream in which he was told to do so. The standard Akkadian "Epic of Gilgamesh" contains numerous accounts of the prophetic power of dreams. First, Gilgamesh himself has two dreams foretelling the arrival of Enkidu.