BLAKE & DREAMS 5

  In the Book of Daniel we read that Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, has had a dream of which he did not know the interpretation. Daniel, a  captive of Judah, revealed that in the dream  Nebuchadnezzar is represented by the head of gold, and that silver, brass, iron, and clay represent  a decline in the strength of the kingdom. Inferior kingdoms shall riegn until "God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed." Nebuchadnezzar conceded that Daniel's God  "is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets"

Daniel, Chapter 2

[3] And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.

[16] Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.

[19] Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

[25] Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.

[28] But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;

[31] Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
[32] This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
[33] His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

[36] This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
[37] Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
[38] And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
[39] And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
[40] And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
[41] And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
[42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
[43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
[44] And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
[45] Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
[46] Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.
[47] The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.

[48] Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

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In the Divine Comedy Dante and Virgil encounter the figure which appeared in the Old Testament book of Daniel. 

From the National Gallery Victoria : Inferno XIV, 94-119: Dante and Virgil, in the third ring of the seventh circle, come across a blood-red stream. Dante explains that the rivers of Hell are formed by tears falling from the giant old man encased in the mountain of Ida on the island of Crete, the centre of the known world. For Dante this figure embodied the course of human history. His head is of gold, his arms and breast of silver, his lower abdomen brass, and below that he is of iron save that his right foot is of clay; this denotes the decay of the world from the Golden Age before the Fall to Dante's own time, the clay foot representing the degenerate church. Blake endows the figure with a crown, an orb and a sceptre to show that in his view the decay of the world was the result of political oppression - kingship and tyranny."

National Gallery of Victoria

The Symbolic Figure of the Course of Human History Described by Virgil.

In The Blake Disctionary, Damon gives additional information: "Empires rise and fall. The golden head may represent Babylon, the silver arms and torso: Empire of Medes and Persians; the brass loins: Greece; the iron legs: Rome; and the feet of iron and clay: Europe."

The appearance of the imagery of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in various contexts may suggests that it represents an archetypal dream.