Why have some people sought metaphysics? Being a materialist has a certain reasonability: “What you can detect with the senses exists; everything else is fiction.” Logical, right? Well, this view has been unsatisfying to vast swaths of people over the millennia (including me), and for varying reasons. It is astonishing when you think of how persistent is the appearance of that which is beyond (meta-) nature (physis), that which is meta-physical. We will now look at a long list of ancient philosophers, and watch for the emergence of metaphysics. This will help us get our bearings, orientation, root us deeply in the tradition, and give us a strong foundation for our own question: Are the things that essentially belong to motherhood, the value of the human person and the importance of human thriving, myth or reality?