Around 480 B.C.E., the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides wrote a poem that takes readers along on his dream-journey into the underworld. This work can cast its spell on anyone in the Western world today, for, as classicist Peter Kingsley writes, it "is the story of ourselves." Allow these opening words to initiate you into its mysteries.

The Poem of Parmenides translated by Peter Kingsley: In the Dark Places of Wisdom, 1999, 2023.

Music by Pierre-Yves Martel: "Midnight in the Rose Room," from Ephemera, 2024.

Artwork by Paul Delvaux: Solitude, 1955; Forest Station, 1960; The Temple, 1949; Sleeping Venus, 1944; The Tunnel, 1978; Iron Age, 1951; The Entombment, 1957.