Tagesreste e Simulacra: sogni e sogni erotici in Lucrezio

In accordance with the Epicurean doctrine which denies the dreams any prophetic power, linking them instead to the events occurred during the day, Lucretius theorizes and demonstrates the close connexion among Tagesreste, simulacra and dream experience. Particularly noteworthy is the section devoted to erotic dreams (IV 1030-1057), where he uses Greek medical literature between Hippocrates and Herophilus of Chalcedon. Some Greek medical passages, hitherto not taken into account, even accompanied by the evidence of late-antique texts, sheds light on the scientific background on which the Lucretian passage dedicated to the physiology of venereal dreams insists.