Relation To Other Works
The tale is modelled on The Myth of Er in Plato's Republic. Although the story of Er records a near-death experience, while the journey of Scipio's "disembodied soul" takes place in a dream, both give examples of belief in astral projection.
Macrobius' Commentary upon Scipio's Dream was known to the sixth-century philosopher Boethius, and was later valued throughout the Middle Ages as a primer of cosmology. The work assumed the astrological cosmos formulated by Claudius Ptolemy. Chretien de Troyes referred to Macrobius' work in his first Arthurian romance, Erec, and it was a model for Dante's account of heaven and hell. Chaucer referred to the work in The Nun's Priest's Tale and especially in the Parlement of Foules.
Some critics consider Raphael's painting Vision of a Knight to be a depiction of Scipio's Dream.
The composer Mozart, at the age of fifteen, wrote a short opera entitled Il sogno di Scipione (K. 126) based upon Scipio Aemilianus's 'soul-journey' through the cosmos.
Iain Pears wrote a historical novel called "The Dream of Scipio" which refers to Cicero's work in various direct and indirect ways.
Bernard Field, in the preface to his "History of Science Fiction", cited Scipio's vision of the Earth as seen from a big height as a forerunner of modern science fiction writers describing the experience of flying in orbit — particularly noting the similarity between Scipio's realization that Rome is but a small part of the Earth with similar feeling by characters in Arthur C. Clarke's works.
Read more about this topic: Somnium Scipionis
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