The Dream of the Gods

"As I crawled out of the shattered temple of knowledge, I saw half the city on fire, and the night sky wreathed in columns of flame and plumes of smoke. Slain people lay here and there among the ruins of the buildings, it was silent around, and I could hear the crackling..." Originally penned in 1912, "The Dream of the Gods" (Der Traum von den Göttern) is a visionary prose piece in which Hesse recounts a dream foretelling the fiery destruction of the world by the god of war, Ares. "The Drea...