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{{Short description|Philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche}}
:''This article is about the book by ]. For the symphonic poem by Richard Strauss, please see ]. For the oil painting cycle by Lena Hades, please see ].''
{{about|the book by Nietzsche|Strauss's tone poem named after this book|Also sprach Zarathustra{{!}}''Also sprach Zarathustra''|the short film also known by the name|TED 2023{{!}}''TED 2023''|other uses|Also sprach Zarathustra (disambiguation)}}
]
{{refimprove|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None
| title_orig = Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
| orig_lang_code = de
| translator =
| image = Also sprach Zarathustra. Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen. In drei Theilen.jpg
| caption = Title page of the first three-book edition
| author = ]
| country = Germany
| language = German
| series =
| subject =
| publisher = Ernst Schmeitzner
| release_date = 1883–1892
| english_release_date =
| media_type = Print (] and ])
| preceded_by = ]
| followed_by = ]
| native_wikisource =
| wikisource = Thus Spake Zarathustra
}}
'''''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None''''' ({{langx|de|Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen}}), also translated as '''''Thus Spake Zarathustra''''', is a ] written by German philosopher ]; it was published in four volumes between 1883 and 1885. The protagonist is nominally the historical Zarathustra, more commonly called ] in the West.


Much of the book consists of discourses by Zarathustra on a wide variety of subjects, most of which end with the refrain "thus spoke Zarathustra". The character of Zarathustra first appeared in Nietzsche's earlier book '']'' (at §342, which closely resembles §1 of "Zarathustra's Prologue" in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'').
'''''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None''''' is a book written during the ] by the ] ], ]. Hard to categorise, the work is a treatise on philosophy, a highly praised work of literature<!--statement needs one or two examples-->, and in parts a collection of poetry and in others a parody of and amendment to the ]. Consisting largely of speeches by the book's ] ] and ] ], the work's content extends across a vast range of styles and subject matter. Nietzsche himself described the work as "the deepest ever written".


The style of Nietzsche's ''Zarathustra'' has facilitated varied and often incompatible ideas about what Nietzsche's Zarathustra says. The "xplanations and claims" given by the character of Zarathustra in this work "are almost always analogical and figurative".<ref name="ReferenceD-Intro">Del Caro and Pippin, "Introduction" in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', Cambridge, 2006.</ref> Though there is no consensus about what Zarathustra ''means'' when he speaks, there is some consensus ''about'' that which he speaks. ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' deals with ideas about the '']'', the ], the ], and ].
==Background==
The book's English title varies depending on translation; the titles of the ] and ] translations are "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", while it was also translated before as the more ] ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', for example, alike to ]'s translation. The ] title is ''Also sprach Zarathustra. Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen'' - .


== Origins ==
''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' was conceived by Nietzsche while he was writing his book, '']''; he made a small note, reading "6,000 feet beyond man and time", as evidence of this. More specifically, this note related to the concept of the ], which is, by Nietzsche's admission, the central idea of ''Zarathustra''. Nietzsche planned to write the book in three parts over several years.
]'' that the central idea of ''Zarathustra'' occurred to him by a "pyramidal block of stone" on the shores of ].]]
]
Nietzsche was born into, and largely remained within, the ], a sort of highly cultivated middle class.<ref>Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 2: Half an orphan" in ''The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche'', Cambridge University Press</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} By the time he was a teenager, he had been writing music and poetry.<ref>Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 3: The Discovery of Writing" in ''The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche'', Cambridge University Press</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}}<ref>Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 4: The Discovery of Self" in ''The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche'', Cambridge University Press</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} His aunt Rosalie gave him a biography of ] for his 15th birthday, and reading this inspired a love of learning "for its own sake".<ref>Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 5: Soul-building: the theory" in ''The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche'', Cambridge University Press</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} The schools he attended, the books he read, and his general milieu fostered and inculcated his interests in ], a concept at least tangential to many in ''Zarathustra'', and he worked extremely hard. He became an outstanding ] almost accidentally, and he renounced his ideas about being an artist. As a philologist he became particularly sensitive to the transmissions and modifications of ideas,<ref>Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 13: 'Become what you are'" in ''The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche'', Cambridge University Press</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} which also bears relevance into ''Zarathustra''. Nietzsche's growing distaste toward philology, however, was yoked with his growing taste toward philosophy. As a student, this yoke was his work with ]. Even with that work he strongly opposed received opinion. With subsequent and properly philosophical work he continued to oppose received opinion.<ref name="ReferenceC">Hollingdale, "Introduction" in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', Penguin</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} His books leading up to ''Zarathustra'' have been described as nihilistic destruction.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} Such nihilistic destruction combined with his increasing isolation and the rejection of his marriage proposals (to ]) devastated him.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} While he was working on ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' he was walking very much.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} The imagery of his walks mingled with his physical and emotional and intellectual pains and his prior decades of hard work. What "erupted" was ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}}


Nietzsche has said that the central idea of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' is the ]. He has also said that this central idea first occurred to him in August 1881: he was near a "pyramidal block of stone" while walking through the woods along the shores of ] in the ], and he made a small note that read "6,000 feet beyond man and time".{{clarify|reason= this is only part of the note and accordingly problematic. It also does nothing to intimate that this was the first idea of Eternal Return| date= June 2021}}<ref>Gutmann, James. 1954. "The 'Tremendous Moment' of Nietzsche's Vision." '']'' 51(25):837–42. {{doi|10.2307/2020597}}. {{JSTOR|2020597}}.</ref>
While developing the general outlook of the book, he subsequently decided that he would write an extra three parts; ultimately, however, he composed only the fourth part, which is viewed to constitute an '']''.


A few weeks after meeting this idea, he paraphrased in a notebook something written by ] about ].<ref name="ReferenceA">Parkes, "Introduction" in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', Oxford</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} This paraphrase was developed into the beginning of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}}
Nietzsche commented in '']'' that for the completion of each part: "Ten days sufficed; in no case, neither for the first nor for the third and last, did I require more" (trans. Kaufmann). The first three parts were first published separately, and were subsequently published in a single volume in ]. The fourth part remained private after Nietzsche wrote it in ]; a scant forty copies were all that were printed, apart from seven others that were distributed to Nietzsche's close friends. In ] ], the four parts were finally reprinted as a single volume. Since then, the version most commonly produced has included all four parts.


A year and a half after making that paraphrase, Nietzsche was living in ].<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} Nietzsche claimed that the entire first part was conceived, and that Zarathustra himself "came over him", while walking. He was regularly walking "the magnificent road to ]" and "the whole ]".<ref name="ReferenceB">Nietzsche, cited in Parkes, "Introduction" in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', Oxford</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} He said in a letter that the entire first part "was conceived in the course of strenuous hiking: absolute certainty, as if every sentence were being called out to me".<ref name="ReferenceB"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}}
The original text contains a great degree of word-play. An example of this exists in the use of the words "over" or "super" and the word "down": for instance, in the terms "superman" or "overman", "overgoing", "downgoing", and "self-overcoming".

Nietzsche returned to "the sacred place" in the summer of 1883 and he "found" the second part.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Nietzsche was in ] the following winter and he "found" the third part.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}}

According to Nietzsche in ''Ecce Homo'' it was "scarcely one year for the entire work", and ten days each part.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} More broadly, however, he said in a letter: "The ''whole'' of ''Zarathustra'' is an explosion of forces that have been accumulating for decades".<ref name="ReferenceB"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In January 1884, Nietzsche finished the third part and thought the book finished.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} But by November he expected a fourth part to be finished by January.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} He also mentioned a fifth and sixth part leading to Zarathustra's death, "or else he will give me no peace".<ref name="ReferenceB"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} But after the fourth part was finished he called it "a fourth (and last) part of ''Zarathustra'', a kind of sublime finale, which is not at all meant for the public".<ref name="ReferenceB"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}}

The first three parts were initially published individually and were first published together in a single volume in 1887.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} The fourth part was written in 1885.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} While Nietzsche retained mental capacity and was involved in the publication of his works, forty copies of the fourth part were printed at his own expense and distributed to his closest friends, to whom he expressed "a vehement desire never to have the Fourth Part made public".<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}} In 1889, however, ]. In March 1892 part four was published separately, and the following July the four parts were published in a single volume.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Full citation needed|date=March 2024}}

== Character of Zarathustra ==
In the 1888 ], Nietzsche explains what he meant by making the ] figure of ] the protagonist of his book:<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=NIETZSCHE AND PERSIA |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/nietzsche-and-persia |access-date=2023-02-18 |website=] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ecce Homo, by Friedrich Nietzsche. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52190/52190-h/52190-h.htm#WHY_I_AM_A_FATALITY |access-date=2023-02-18 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref>
{{Quote|text=People have never asked me as they should have done, what the name of Zarathustra precisely meant in my mouth, in the mouth of the first ]; for that which distinguishes this Persian from all others in the past is the very fact that he was the exact reverse of an immoralist. Zarathustra was the first to ]. The translation of morality into the realm of ], as force, cause, end-in-itself, is his work. But the very question suggests its own answer. Zarathustra created this most portentous of all errors,—]; therefore he must be the first to expose it. Not only because he has had longer and greater experience of the subject than any other thinker,—all history is indeed the experimental refutation of the theory of the so-called moral order of things,—but because of the more important fact that Zarathustra was the most truthful of thinkers. ]—that is to say, as the reverse of the cowardice of the "]" who takes to his heels at the sight of reality. Zarathustra has more pluck in his body than all other thinkers put together. To tell the truth and to aim straight: that is the first Persian virtue. Have I made myself clear? ... The overcoming of morality by itself, through truthfulness, the moralist's overcoming of himself in his opposite—in me—that is what the name Zarathustra means in my mouth.|title=''Ecce Homo''|source="Why I Am a Fatality"}}Thus, "s Nietzsche admits himself, by choosing the name of Zarathustra as the prophet of his philosophy in a poetical idiom, he wanted to pay homage to the original ] prophet as a prominent founding figure of the spiritual-moral phase in human history, and reverse his teachings at the same time, according to ]. The ] interpreted ] on the basis of the ] and saw the whole world as an arena of the struggle between two fundamental moral elements, Good and Evil, depicted in two antagonistic divine figures ] and ]]. Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, in contrast, puts forward his ] immoralism and tries to prove and reestablish the primordial innocence of beings by destroying philosophically all moralistic interpretations and evaluations of being".<ref name=":0" />


==Synopsis== ==Synopsis==
===First part===
{{spoiler}}
The book begins with a prologue that sets up many of the themes that will be explored throughout the work. Zarathustra is introduced as a hermit who has lived ten years on a mountain with his two companions, an eagle and a serpent. One morning – inspired by the sun, which is happy only when it shines upon others – Zarathustra decides to return to the world and share his wisdom. Upon descending the mountain, he encounters a saint living in a forest, who spends his days praising God. Zarathustra marvels that the saint has not yet heard that "]".
The book chronicles the fictitious travels and ] of Zarathustra. "Zarathustra" (/tsaratuʃtra/) is the German version of the name of the ] prophet ], the presumed founder of ], which had a profound influence on ] and subsequently ], or may have himself been influenced by Judaism. It becomes clear in the book that Nietzsche is portraying a "new" or "different" Zarathustra, one who turns traditional morality on its head. He goes on to characterize "what the name of Zarathustra means in my mouth, the mouth of the first immoralist :"


Arriving at the nearest town, Zarathustra addresses a crowd which has gathered to watch a ]. He tells them that mankind's goal must be to create something superior to itself – a new type of human, the '']''. All men, he says, must be prepared to will their own destruction in order to bring the ''Übermensch'' into being. The crowd greets this speech with scorn and mockery, and meanwhile the tightrope show begins. When the rope-dancer is halfway across, a clown comes up behind him, urging him to get out of the way. The clown then leaps over the rope-dancer, causing the latter to fall to his death. The crowd scatters; Zarathustra takes the corpse of the rope-dancer on his shoulders, carries it into the forest, and lays it in a hollow tree. He decides that from this point on, he will no longer attempt to speak to the masses, but only to a few chosen disciples.
{{Quotation|for what constitutes the tremendous historical uniqueness of that Persian is just the opposite of this. Zarathustra was the first to consider the fight of good and evil the very wheel in the machinery of things: the transposition of morality into the metaphysical realm, as a force, cause, and end in itself, is ''his'' work. ... Zarathustra created this most calamitous error, morality; consequently, he must also be the first to recognize it. ... His doctrine, and his alone, posits truthfulness as the highest virtue; this means the opposite of the cowardice of the “idealist” who flees from reality….—Am I understood?— The self-overcoming of morality, out of truthfulness; the self-overcoming of the moralist, into his opposite—into me—that is what the name of Zarathustra means in my mouth.|trans. Walter Kaufmann|Ecce Homo, Why I Am a Destiny, sec. 3}}


There follows a series of discourses in which Zarathustra overturns many of the precepts of Christian morality. He gathers a group of disciples, but ultimately abandons them, saying that he will not return until they have disowned him.
''Zarathustra'' has a simple plot, narrated sporadically throughout the text. It possesses a unique ] style, one that is, for instance, evident in newly invented "]s" narrated or sung by Zarathustra. Likewise, the separate '']'', written in autumn, ], were printed with the full volume, in 1892, as the corollaries of Zarathustra's "abundance".


===Second part===
Some have speculated that Nietzsche intended to write about final acts of creation and destruction that Zarathustra would commit. However, the book lacks a '']'' that would match that description; its actual ending focuses more on Zarathustra recognizing that his legacy is beginning to perpetuate, and consequently choosing to leave the higher men to their own devices in carrying his legacy forth.
Zarathustra retires to his mountain cave, and several years pass by. One night, he dreams that he looks into a mirror and sees the face of a devil instead of his own; he takes this as a sign that his doctrines are being distorted by his enemies, and joyfully descends the mountain to recover his lost disciples.


More discourses follow, which continue to develop the themes of the death of God and the rise of the ''Übermensch'', and also introduce the concept of the ]. There are hints, however, that Zarathustra is holding something back. A series of dreams and visions prompt him to reveal this secret teaching, but he cannot bring himself to do so. He withdraws from his disciples once more, in order to perfect himself.
''Zarathustra'' also contains the famous dictum "]", which had appeared earlier in ''The Gay Science''. However, in his autobiography Nietzsche states that the book's true underlying concept is discussed within "the penultimate section of the fourth " (''Ecce Homo'', Kaufmann), namely, "The Drunken Song". It is Zarathustra's vision of the ].


===Third part===
This concept first occurred to Nietzsche while he was walking in ] through the woods along the lake of ] (close to ]); he was inspired by the sight of a gigantic, towering, pyramidal rock.<ref></ref> Before ''Zarathustra'', Nietzsche had mentioned the concept in the fourth book of ''The Gay Science'' (e.g., sect. 341); this was the first public proclamation of the notion by him. Apart from its salient presence in ''Zarathustra'', it is also echoed throughout Nietzsche's work. At any rate, it is by Zarathustra's transfiguration that he embraces eternity, that he at last ascertains "the supreme will to power"<ref>'']'', sect. 617; trans. Kaufmann</ref>. This inspiration finds its expression with ], featured twice in the book, once near the story's close (trans. Thomas Common; ''Thus Spake Zarathustra''):
While journeying home, Zarathustra is waylaid by the spirit of gravity, a dwarf-like creature which clings to his back and whispers taunts into his ear. Zarathustra at first becomes despondent, but then takes courage; he challenges the spirit to hear the "abysmal thought" which he has so far refrained from speaking. This is the doctrine of ]. Time, says Zarathustra, is infinite, stretching both forward and backward into eternity. This means that everything that happens now must have happened before, and that every moment must continue to repeat itself eternally.
{{cquote|O man! Take heed!<br>What saith deep midnight's voice indeed?<br>I slept my sleep—<br>From deepest dream I've woke and plead:—<br>The world is deep,<br>And deeper than the day could read.<br>Deep is its woe—<br>Joy—deeper still than grief can be:<br>Woe saith: Hence! Go!<br>But joys all want eternity—<br>Want deep profound eternity!}}


As he speaks, Zarathustra hears a dog howl in terror, and then he sees a new vision – a shepherd choking on a black serpent which has crept into his throat. At Zarathustra's urging, the shepherd bites the serpent's head off and spits it out. In that moment, the shepherd is transformed into a laughing, radiant being, something greater than human.
Another singular feature of ''Zarathustra'', first presented in the prologue, is the designation of human beings as a transition between apes and the "'']''" (in English, either the "overman" or "superman"). The ''Übermensch'' is one of the many interconnecting, interdependent themes of the story, and is represented through several different metaphors. Examples include: the lightning that is portended by the silence and raindrops of a travelling storm cloud; or the sun's rise and culmination at its midday zenith; or a man traversing a rope stationed above an abyss, moving away from his uncultivated animality and towards the 'Übermensch''.


Zarathustra continues his journey, delivering more discourses inspired by his observations. Arriving at his mountain cave, he remains there for some time, reflecting on his mission. He is disgusted at humanity's pettiness, and despairs at the thought of the eternal recurrence of such an insignificant race. Eventually, however, he discovers his own longing for eternity, and sings ].
The symbol of the ''Übermensch'' also alludes to Nietzsche's notions of "self-mastery", "self-cultivation", "self-direction", and "self-overcoming". Expostulating these concepts, Zarathustra declares:


===Fourth part===
{{Quotation|''I teach you the overman''. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?<p>All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape.<p>Whoever is the wisest among you is also a mere conflict and cross between plant and ghost. But do I bid you become ghosts or plants?<p>Behold, I teach you the overman. The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman ''shall be'' the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, ''remain faithful to the earth'', and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go.|trans. Walter Kaufmann|Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue, sec. 3}}<!--Common's is already available to people, so it would be good to show Kaufmann's as an alternative consideration-->
Zarathustra begins to grow old as he remains secluded in his cave. One day, he is visited by a soothsayer, who says that he has come to tempt Zarathustra to his final sin – compassion (''mitleiden'', which can also be translated as "pity"). A loud cry of distress is heard, and the soothsayer tells Zarathustra that "the higher man" is calling to him. Zarathustra is alarmed, and rushes to the aid of the higher man.


Searching through his domain for the person who uttered the cry for help, Zarathustra encounters a series of characters representative of various aspects of humanity. He engages each of them in conversation, and ends by inviting each one to await his return in his cave. After a day's search, however, he is unable to find the higher man. Returning home, he hears the cry of distress once more, now coming from inside his own cave. He realises that all the people he has spoken to that day are collectively the higher man. Welcoming them to his home, he nevertheless tells them that they are not the men he has been waiting for; they are only the precursors of the ''Übermensch''.
The book embodies a number of innovative poetical and rhetorical methods of expression. It serves as a parallel and supplement to the various philosophical ideas present in Nietzsche's body of work. He has, however, said that ''among my writings my '''Zarathustra''' stands to my mind by itself'' (''Ecce Homo'', Preface, sec. 4, Kaufmann). Emphasizing its centrality and its status as his '']'', it is stated by Nietzsche that:


Zarathustra hosts a supper for his guests, which is enlivened by songs and arguments, and ends in the facetious worship of a donkey. The higher men thank Zarathustra for relieving them of their distress and teaching them to be content with life.
{{Quotation|With I have given mankind the greatest present that has ever been made so far. This book, with a voice bridging centuries is not only the highest book there is, the book that is truly characterized by the air of the heights—the whole fact of man lies ''beneath'' it at a tremendous distance—it is also the ''deepest'', born out of the innermost wealth of truth, an inexhaustible well to which no bucket descends without coming up again filled with gold and goodness.|trans. Walter Kaufmann|Ecce Homo}}


The following morning, outside his cave, Zarathustra encounters a lion and a flock of doves, which he interprets as a sign that those whom he calls his children are near. As the higher men emerge from the cave, the lion roars at them, causing them to cry out and flee. Their cry reminds Zarathustra of the soothsayer's prediction that he would be tempted into feeling compassion for the higher man. He declares that this is over, and that from this time forward he will think of nothing but his work.
Since, as stated, many of the book's ideas are also present in his other works, ''Zarathustra'' is seen to have served as a precursor to his later philosophical thought. With the book, Nietzsche embraced a distinct aesthetic assiduity. He later reformulated many of his ideas, in his book '']'' and various other writings that he composed thereafter. He continued to emphasize his philosophical concerns; generally, his intention was to show an alternative to repressive moral codes and to avert "]" in all of its varied forms.


==Themes==
Other aspects of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' pertain to Nietzsche's proposed "Revaluation of All Values". This incomplete project began with '']''.
{{Expand section|1=Each subsection implies that there is consensus. There is no consensus|section=1|date=April 2021}}
], 1906]]
Scholars have argued that "the worst possible way to understand Zarathustra is as a teacher of doctrines".<ref>Pippin, Robert B. (2019), "Figurative Philosophy in ''Beyond Good and Evil''", in ''The New Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche'', pp. 195-221</ref> Nonetheless ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' "has contributed most to the public perception of Nietzsche as philosopher{{snd}}namely, as the teacher of the 'doctrines' of the ], the ] and the ]".<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1017/9781316676264.008 |chapter=''Zarathustra:'' Nietzsche's Rendezvous with Eternity |title=The New Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche |date=2019 |last1=Johnson |first1=Dirk R. |pages=173–194 |isbn=978-1-316-67626-4 |s2cid=171729848 }}</ref>


== Style == === Will to power ===
{{Main|Will to power}}
Nietzsche is unique among philosophers for what is widely regarded as the remarkable power and effectiveness of his ] ] — particularly as manifested in '']''. The indigestible "heaviness" long associated with German-language philosophy is eschewed, with ]s and ]es abounding, and aphoristic brevity symptomatic of ] and even ] are in his ]. The end result is a manner of writing which, being "pitched half-way between metaphor and literal statement", is "something quite extraordinary".<ref>J.P. Stern</ref>
Nietzsche's thinking was significantly influenced by the thinking of ]. Schopenhauer emphasised will, and particularly ]. Nietzsche emphasised ''Wille zur Macht'', or will to power.


Nietzsche was not a systematic philosopher and left much of what he wrote open to interpretation. ] are said to have misinterpreted the will to power, having overlooked Nietzsche's distinction between ''Kraft'' ("force" or "strength") and ''Macht'' ("power" or "might").<ref>{{cite book |last1=Golomb |first1=Jacob |date=2002 |title=Nietzsche, Godfather of Fascism? On the Uses and Abuses of a Philosophy}}{{pn|date=September 2023}}</ref>
His work has been described as "half philosophic, half poetic"{{citation needed}}; the fact that it can thus manage to convince the reader emotionally as well as intellectually is one reason for its appeal among many — but it also means that the theory behind the metaphors is never fully or clearly written out, inviting the reader alone to interpret the text.


Scholars have often had recourse to Nietzsche's notebooks, where will to power is described in ways such as "willing-to-become-stronger , willing growth".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dunkle |first1=Ian D. |title=On the Normativity of Nietzsche's Will to Power |journal=The Journal of Nietzsche Studies |date=2020 |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=188–211 |doi=10.5325/jnietstud.51.2.0188 |s2cid=229665706 |id={{Project MUSE|773967}} }}</ref>
One problem inevitably caused by this is that the boundaries of his thinking are not easily discerned: for example, many people not only feel that Nietzsche's term "'']''" conjures up the "pure Aryan" of Hitlerian mythology, but further assume that it must have been accompanied by the complementary lesser human or sub-human "Untermensch" — whereas the latter term is in fact a creation of ] racial ideology.


=== ''Übermensch'' ===
Another vulnerability entailed by Nietzsche's style is that nuances and shades of meaning are very easily lost — and all too easily gained — in translation. Here the '']'' is a case in point: the equivalent "Superman" found in dictionaries and in the translations by Thomas Common and R.J. Hollingdale may create an unfortunate association with the heroic comic-character "]" — while other logical alternatives which one might propose ("Over-human", "Above-human", "Super-human", or "Beyond-human"{{citation needed}}) are either uselessly clumsy or are evidence of a "political correctness" foreign to Nietzsche's outlook. Walter Kaufmann's "Overman" would perhaps be more serviceable — were it not for the overtone of hierarchical authoritarianism it introduces{{citation needed}}. A little used alternative is "Hyperman"{{citation needed}}. It is as precise as "Superman" without the pop-political connotations. (The Greek prefix hyper, pronounced more like "hüper", is from the same root and has the same meaning as the Latin prefix super: cf. hüper/super.)
{{Main|Übermensch}}
It is allegedly "well-known that as a term, Nietzsche’s Übermensch derives from ]'s hyperanthropos".<ref name="research.library.fordham.edu">Babich, Babette, "Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Parodic Style: On Lucian’s Hyperanthropos and Nietzsche’s Übermensch" (2013). Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections. 56.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/phil_babich/56</ref> This hyperanthropos, or "overman," appears in Lucian's ] ''Κατάπλους ἢ Τύραννος'', usually translated ''Downward Journey or The Tyrant''. This hyperanthropos is "imagined to be superior to others of 'lesser' station in this-worldly life and the same tyrant after his (comically unwilling) transport into the underworld".<ref name="research.library.fordham.edu"/>
Nietzsche celebrated ] as an actualisation of the Übermensch.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>


=== Eternal recurrence ===
The translations of ''Zarathustra'' dissent according to the sentiments of the translators for the English language. For instance, the ] translation, widely available, favors a more biblical approach. As a partial consequence, that is, these claims are not limited to its biblical features, some have claimed it to be inaccurate and/or to possess Nazi distortions by Nietzsche's sister; however, on comparison between it and the translations claimed to be superior, there is little discrepancy between the meaning of the original and translation{{citation needed}}. By contrast, the current and much more critical translations, titled ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', seperately by ] and ], who also contested the inaccuracies of Common's translation, are considered, in various circles,<!--those listed can constitute as citation of this claim--> to convey more accurately the minutiae of the German text than ''Thus Spake Zarathustra''{{citation needed}}. In these translations the work is rendered in a far more modern and mundane style of language.
{{Main|Eternal return}}
] in 1899]]


Nietzsche includes some brief writings on eternal recurrence in his earlier book ''The Gay Science''. Zarathustra also appears in that book. In ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', the eternal recurrence is, according to Nietzsche, the "fundamental idea of the work".<ref>{{cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |translator=Anthony M. Ludovici |title=Ecce Homo |page=96 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteWorksOfFriedrichNietzschevol.17-EcceHomo/page/n115/mode/2up?view=theater |publisher=Macmillan |date=1911}}</ref>
Regardless of the translations, it is illuminating to think of "''Über''" in relationship to the development of the individual subject. The "''Übermensch''" is the being that overcomes the "great nausea" associated with nihilism; that overcomes that most "abysmal" realization of the eternal return. He is the being that "sails over morality", and that dances over gravity (the "spirit of gravity" is Zarathustra's devil and archenemy). He is a "harvester" and a "celebrant" who endlessly affirms his existence, thereby becoming the transfigurer of his consciousness and life, aesthetically. He is initially a destructive force, excising and annihilating the insidious "truths" of the herd, and consequently reclaiming the chaos from which pure creativity is born. It is this creative force exemplified by the ''Übermensch'' that justifies suffering without displacing it in some "afterworld".


Interpretations of the eternal recurrence have mostly revolved around cosmological and attitudinal and normative principles.<ref name="Loving the Eternal Recurrence">{{cite journal |last1=Sinhababu |first1=Neil |last2=Teng |first2=Kuong Un |title=Loving the Eternal Recurrence |journal=The Journal of Nietzsche Studies |date=2019 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=106–124 |doi=10.5325/jnietstud.50.1.0106 |s2cid=171915841 |url=https://philarchive.org/rec/SINLTE |id={{Project MUSE|721006}} }}</ref>
==See also==
*'']''
*]
*]


As a cosmological principle, it has been supposed to mean that time is circular, that all things recur eternally.<ref name="Loving the Eternal Recurrence" /> A weak attempt at proof has been noted in Nietzsche's notebooks, and it is not clear to what extent, if at all, Nietzsche believed in the truth of it.<ref name="Loving the Eternal Recurrence" /> Critics have mostly dealt with the cosmological principle as a puzzle of ''why'' Nietzsche might have touted the idea.

As an attitudinal principle it has often been dealt with as a thought experiment, to see how one would react, or as a sort of ultimate expression of life-affirmation, as if one should ''desire'' eternal recurrence.<ref name="Loving the Eternal Recurrence" />

As a normative principle, it has been thought of as a measure or standard, akin to a "moral rule".<ref name="Loving the Eternal Recurrence" />

=== Criticism of religion ===
Nietzsche studied extensively and was very familiar with ] and Christianity and Buddhism, each of which he considered nihilistic and "enemies to a healthy culture". ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' can be understood as a "polemic" against these influences.<ref name="Nietzsche and Buddhism">{{cite journal |last1=Elman |first1=Benjamin A. |date=October 1983 |title=Nietzsche and Buddhism |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=671–686 |doi=10.2307/2709223 |jstor=2709223}}</ref>

Though Nietzsche "probably learned ] while at ] from 1865 to 1868", and "was probably one of the best read and most solidly grounded in Buddhism for his time among Europeans", Nietzsche was writing when Eastern thought was only beginning to be acknowledged in the West, and Eastern thought was easily misconstrued. Nietzsche's interpretations of Buddhism were coloured by his study of Schopenhauer, and it is "clear that Nietzsche, as well as Schopenhauer, entertained inaccurate views of Buddhism". An egregious example has been the idea of '']'' as "nothingness" rather than "emptiness". "Perhaps the most serious misreading we find in Nietzsche's account of Buddhism was his inability to recognize that the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness was an initiatory stage leading to a reawakening". Nietzsche dismissed Schopenhauer and Christianity and Buddhism as pessimistic and nihilistic, but, according to Benjamin A. Elman, "hen understood on its own terms, Buddhism cannot be dismissed as pessimistic or nihilistic". Moreover, answers which Nietzsche assembled to the questions he was asking, not only generally but also in ''Zarathustra'', put him "very close to some basic doctrines found in Buddhism". An example is when Zarathustra says that "the soul is only a word for something about the body".<ref name="Nietzsche and Buddhism" />

===Nihilism===
One of the most vexed points in discussions of Nietzsche has been whether or not he was a nihilist.<ref name="Nietzsche and Buddhism" /> Though arguments have been made for either side, what is clear is that Nietzsche was at least ''interested'' in nihilism.

As far as nihilism touched other people, at least, metaphysical understandings of the world were progressively undermined until people could contend that "God is dead".<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Without God, humanity was greatly devalued.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Without metaphysical or supernatural lenses, humans could be seen as animals with primitive drives which were or could be sublimated.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> According to Hollingdale, this led to Nietzsche's ideas about the will to power.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Likewise, "''Sublimated will to power'' was now the ]'s thread tracing the way out of the labyrinth of nihilism".<ref name="ReferenceC"/>

==Style==
{{Expand section|1= Nietzsche's general style and epistemology at least|date=May 2021}}
]

The nature of the text is musical and operatic.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> While working on it Nietzsche wrote "of his aim 'to become Wagner's heir'".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Nietzsche thought of it as akin to a symphony or opera.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> "No lesser a symphonist than ] corroborates: 'His ''Zarathustra'' was born completely from the spirit of music, and is even "symphonically constructed"'".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Nietzsche{{quote|later draws special attention to "the tempo of Zarathustra's speeches" and their "delicate slowness" {{snd}} "from an infinite fullness of light and depth of happiness drop falls after drop, word after word"{{snd}} as well as the necessity of "''hearing'' properly the tone that issues from his mouth, this halcyon tone".<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}} The length of paragraphs and the punctuation and the repetitions all enhance the musicality.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><br><br>
The title is ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''. Much of the book is what Zarathustra said. What Zarathustra says {{Quote|is throughout so highly parabolic, metaphorical, and aphoristic. Rather than state various claims about virtues and the present age and religion and aspirations, Zarathustra speaks about stars, animals, trees, tarantulas, dreams, and so forth. Explanations and claims are almost always analogical and figurative.<ref name="ReferenceD">Pippin, "Introduction" in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', Cambridge</ref>}}

Nietzsche would often appropriate masks and models to develop himself and his thoughts and ideas, and to find voices and names through which to communicate.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kofman |first1=Sarah |title=And Yet It Quakes! (Nietzsche and Voltaire) |journal=Paragraph |date=March 2021 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=117–137 |doi=10.3366/para.2021.0358 |s2cid=233912690 }}</ref> While writing ''Zarathustra'', Nietzsche was particularly influenced by "the language of ] and the poetic form of the Bible".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> But ''Zarathustra'' also frequently alludes to or appropriates from ]'s '']'' and ]'s ] and ]'s ], among other things. It is generally agreed that the sorcerer is based on ] and the soothsayer is based on Schopenhauer.

The original text contains a great deal of ]. For instance, words beginning with '']'' ('over, above') and {{Wikt-lang|en|unter}} ('down, below') are often paired to emphasise the contrast, which is not always possible to bring out in translation, except by coinages. An example is ''untergang'' (] 'down-going'), which is used in German to mean 'setting' (as in, of the sun), but also 'sinking', 'demise', 'downfall', or 'doom'. Nietzsche pairs this word with its opposite ''übergang'' ('over-going'), used to mean 'transition'. Another example is '']'' ('overman' or 'superman').

==Reception==
{{Expand section|1= things more comprehensive and relevant|date= May 2021}}
Nietzsche considered ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' his '']'', writing:

{{Quotation|With I have given mankind the greatest present that has ever been made to it so far. This book, with a voice bridging centuries, is not only the highest book there is, the book that is truly characterized by the air of the heights—the whole fact of man lies ''beneath'' it at a tremendous distance—it is also the ''deepest'', born out of the innermost wealth of truth, an inexhaustible well to which no pail descends without coming up again filled with gold and goodness.|'']'', "Preface" §4, translated by W. Kaufmann|title=|source=}}

In a letter of February 1884, he wrote:

{{quote|With ''Zarathustra'' I believe I have brought the German language to its culmination. After '']'' and '']'' there was still a third step to be made.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>}}

To this, Parkes has said: "Many scholars believe that Nietzsche managed to make that step".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> But critical opinion varies extremely. The book is "a masterpiece of literature as well as philosophy"<ref name="ReferenceA"/> and "in large part a failure".<ref name="ReferenceD"/>

The style of the book, along with its ] and ]ical nature, has helped its eventual enthusiastic reception by the reading public but has frustrated academic attempts at analysis (as Nietzsche may have intended). ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' remained unpopular as a topic for scholars (especially those in the Anglo-American ]) until the latter half of the 20th century brought widespread interest in Nietzsche and his unconventional style.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CCOL0521365864.010 |chapter=Nietzsche in the twentieth century |title=The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche |date=1996 |last1=Behler |first1=Ernst |pages=281–322 |isbn=978-0-521-36767-7 }}</ref>

The critic ] criticized ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' in '']'' (1994), calling it "a gorgeous disaster" and "unreadable".<ref name="Webster">{{cite book |author=Bloom, Harold |title=The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages |publisher=Riverhead Books |location=New York |year=1994 |pages= |isbn=1-57322-514-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/westerncanonbook00bloo/page/196}}</ref> Other commentators have suggested that Nietzsche's style is intentionally ] for much of the book.

==English translations==

The first English translation of ''Zarathustra'' was published in 1896 by ].

=== Common (1909) ===
] published a translation in 1909 which was based on Alexander Tille's earlier attempt.<ref name="wk">Nietzsche, Friedrich. Trans. Kaufmann, Walter. ''The Portable Nietzsche''. 1976, pp. 108–09.</ref>

Kaufmann's introduction to his own translation included a blistering critique of Common's version; he notes that in one instance, Common has taken the German "most evil" and rendered it "baddest", a particularly unfortunate error not merely for his having coined the term "baddest", but also because Nietzsche dedicated a third of '']'' to the difference between "bad" and "evil".<ref name="wk" /> This and other errors led Kaufmann to wonder whether Common "had little German and less English".<ref name="wk" />

The German text available to Common was considerably flawed.<ref name="cm">Nietzsche, Friedrich. Trans. Martin, Clancy. ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''. 2005, p. xxxiii.</ref>

From ''Zarathustra's Prologue'':
{{Quote|The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Superman ''shall be'' the meaning of the earth!<br>I conjure you, my brethren, ''remain true to the earth'', and believe not those who speak unto you of superearthly hopes! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not.}}

=== Kaufmann (1954) and Hollingdale (1961) ===
The Common translation remained widely accepted until more critical translations, titled ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', were published by ] in 1954,<ref name="portable">{{Cite book|last=Nietzsche|first=Friedrich|title=The Portable Nietzsche|publisher=Penguin|others=trans. Walter Kaufmann|year=1954|location=New York}}</ref> and ] in 1961.<ref>Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1961. ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', translated by ]. Harmondsworth: ].</ref>

] states the German text from which Hollingdale and Kaufmann worked was untrue to Nietzsche's own work in some ways. Martin criticizes Kaufmann for changing punctuation, altering literal and philosophical meanings, and dampening some of Nietzsche's more controversial metaphors. Kaufmann's version, which has become the most widely available, features a translator's note suggesting that Nietzsche's text would have benefited from an editor; Martin suggests that Kaufmann "took it upon himself to become editor".<ref name="cm" />

Kaufmann, from ''Zarathustra's Prologue'':
{{Quote|The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, ''remain faithful to the earth'', and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not.}}

Hollingdale, from ''Zarathustra's Prologue'':
{{Quote|The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the Superman ''shall be'' the meaning of the earth!<br>I entreat you, my brothers, ''remain true to the earth'', and do not believe those who speak to you of superterrestrial hopes! They are poisoners, whether they know it or not.}}

=== 21st-century translations ===

==== Parkes (2005) ====
] describes his own 2005 translation as trying to convey the musicality of the text.<ref>Parkes, Graham. 2005. "". In ''Thus spoke Zarathustra''.</ref>

==== Del Caro (2006) ====
In 2006, Cambridge University Press published a translation by ], edited by ].

==Further reading==
=== Selected editions ===
] in German and Russian]]
====English====
*''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', translated by ]. New York: Macmillan. 1896.
*''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', trans. ]. Edinburgh: ]. 1909.
*''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', trans. ]. New York: ]. 1954.
** Reprints: In ''The Portable Nietzsche'', New York: ]. 1954; Harmondsworth: ]. 1976
*''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', trans. ]. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 1961.
*''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', trans. Graham Parkes. Oxford: ]. 2005.
*''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', trans. ]. ]. 2005.
*''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', trans. ] and edited by ]. Cambridge: ]. 2006.
*''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', trans. ]. New York Review Books. 2022.

====German====
*''Also sprach Zarathustra'', edited by ] and ]. Munich: ] (study edition of the standard German Nietzsche edition).
* ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' (bilingual ed.) (in German and Russian), with 20 ]s by ]. Moscow: ]. 2004. {{ISBN|5-9540-0019-0}}.

=== Commentaries and introductions ===
====English====
* ''Nietzsche's 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra': Before Sunrise'' (essay collection), edited by James Luchte. London: ]. 2008. {{ISBN|1-84706-221-0}}.
* ]. . 2010. ''Nietzsche's Zarathustra'' (rev. ed.). Philadelphia: ].
* ]. 1987. "Zarathustra: A God That Can Dance". Pune, India: OSHO Commune International.
*OSHO. 1987. "Zarathustra: The Laughing Prophet". Pune, India: OSHO Commune International.
* ]. 1989. ''Nietzsche's Teaching: An Interpretation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra''. New Haven: ].
* ]. 1995. ''The Mask of Enlightenment: Nietzsche's Zarathustra''. Cambridge: ].
** 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2004.
* ] 2005. ''Nietzsche's Epic of the Soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra''. Lanham, Maryland: ].
====German====
* Naumann, Gustav. 1899–1901. '''' (in German), 4 vols. Leipzig: Haessel.
* Zittel, Claus. 2011. ''Das ästhetische Kalkül von Friedrich Nietzsches 'Also sprach Zarathustra'''. Würzburg: ]. {{ISBN|978-3-8260-4649-0}}.
* ]. "Introduction" (in German). In ''Nietzsche für Anfänger: Also sprach Zarathustra – Eine Lese-Einführung''.
* Zittel, Claus: ], in: Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 95, (2021), 327–351.
==See also==
* ]
*'']'' (Hymns of Zoroaster)
* ]
* ]
* ] (Ancient text, otherwise known as ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or ''Laws of Manu'').
* ]
==References== ==References==
{{wikisourcepar|Thus Spoke Zarathustra}}
{{wikisourcelang|Also sprach Zarathustra|de|Also sprach Zarathustra}}
{{wikiquotepar|Thus Spoke Zarathustra}}
*''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None'' by Friedrich Nietzsche; translated and with a preface by ] (New York, ], ], ISBN 067960175)
*''Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is'' by Friedrich Nietzsche; translated and with a preface by Walter Kaufmann
*''Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist'' by Walter Kaufmann, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1974, ISBN 0-691-01983-5


==External links== === Notes ===
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==Footnotes== === Citations ===
{{reflist}}
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==External links==
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{{Wikisource|Thus Spake Zarathustra}}
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{{Wikiquote|Thus Spoke Zarathustra}}
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* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/friedrich-nietzsche/thus-spake-zarathustra/thomas-common}}
* at Nietzsche Source
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* {{librivox book | title=Thus Spake Zarathustra | author=Friedrich Nietzsche}}
{{Thus Spoke Zarathustra|state=expanded}}{{Nietzsche}}{{Authority control}}


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Latest revision as of 15:01, 21 December 2024

Philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche This article is about the book by Nietzsche. For Strauss's tone poem named after this book, see Also sprach Zarathustra. For the short film also known by the name, see TED 2023. For other uses, see Also sprach Zarathustra (disambiguation).
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Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None
Title page of the first three-book edition
AuthorFriedrich Nietzsche
Original titleAlso sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
LanguageGerman
PublisherErnst Schmeitzner
Publication date1883–1892
Publication placeGermany
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
Preceded byThe Gay Science 
Followed byBeyond Good and Evil 
TextThus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None at Wikisource

Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (German: Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen), also translated as Thus Spake Zarathustra, is a work of philosophical fiction written by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche; it was published in four volumes between 1883 and 1885. The protagonist is nominally the historical Zarathustra, more commonly called Zoroaster in the West.

Much of the book consists of discourses by Zarathustra on a wide variety of subjects, most of which end with the refrain "thus spoke Zarathustra". The character of Zarathustra first appeared in Nietzsche's earlier book The Gay Science (at §342, which closely resembles §1 of "Zarathustra's Prologue" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra).

The style of Nietzsche's Zarathustra has facilitated varied and often incompatible ideas about what Nietzsche's Zarathustra says. The "xplanations and claims" given by the character of Zarathustra in this work "are almost always analogical and figurative". Though there is no consensus about what Zarathustra means when he speaks, there is some consensus about that which he speaks. Thus Spoke Zarathustra deals with ideas about the Übermensch, the death of God, the will to power, and eternal recurrence.

Origins

Nietzsche wrote in Ecce Homo that the central idea of Zarathustra occurred to him by a "pyramidal block of stone" on the shores of Lake Silvaplana.
Nietzsche's first note on the "eternal recurrence", written "at the beginning of August 1881 in Sils-Maria, 6000 ft above sea level and much higher above all human regards! -" Nachlass, notebook M III 1, p. 53.

Nietzsche was born into, and largely remained within, the Bildungsbürgertum, a sort of highly cultivated middle class. By the time he was a teenager, he had been writing music and poetry. His aunt Rosalie gave him a biography of Alexander von Humboldt for his 15th birthday, and reading this inspired a love of learning "for its own sake". The schools he attended, the books he read, and his general milieu fostered and inculcated his interests in Bildung, a concept at least tangential to many in Zarathustra, and he worked extremely hard. He became an outstanding philologist almost accidentally, and he renounced his ideas about being an artist. As a philologist he became particularly sensitive to the transmissions and modifications of ideas, which also bears relevance into Zarathustra. Nietzsche's growing distaste toward philology, however, was yoked with his growing taste toward philosophy. As a student, this yoke was his work with Diogenes Laertius. Even with that work he strongly opposed received opinion. With subsequent and properly philosophical work he continued to oppose received opinion. His books leading up to Zarathustra have been described as nihilistic destruction. Such nihilistic destruction combined with his increasing isolation and the rejection of his marriage proposals (to Lou Andreas-Salomé) devastated him. While he was working on Thus Spoke Zarathustra he was walking very much. The imagery of his walks mingled with his physical and emotional and intellectual pains and his prior decades of hard work. What "erupted" was Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Nietzsche has said that the central idea of Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the eternal recurrence. He has also said that this central idea first occurred to him in August 1881: he was near a "pyramidal block of stone" while walking through the woods along the shores of Lake Silvaplana in the Upper Engadine, and he made a small note that read "6,000 feet beyond man and time".

A few weeks after meeting this idea, he paraphrased in a notebook something written by Friedrich von Hellwald about Zarathustra. This paraphrase was developed into the beginning of Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

A year and a half after making that paraphrase, Nietzsche was living in Rapallo. Nietzsche claimed that the entire first part was conceived, and that Zarathustra himself "came over him", while walking. He was regularly walking "the magnificent road to Zoagli" and "the whole Bay of Santa Margherita". He said in a letter that the entire first part "was conceived in the course of strenuous hiking: absolute certainty, as if every sentence were being called out to me".

Nietzsche returned to "the sacred place" in the summer of 1883 and he "found" the second part.

Nietzsche was in Nice the following winter and he "found" the third part.

According to Nietzsche in Ecce Homo it was "scarcely one year for the entire work", and ten days each part. More broadly, however, he said in a letter: "The whole of Zarathustra is an explosion of forces that have been accumulating for decades".

In January 1884, Nietzsche finished the third part and thought the book finished. But by November he expected a fourth part to be finished by January. He also mentioned a fifth and sixth part leading to Zarathustra's death, "or else he will give me no peace". But after the fourth part was finished he called it "a fourth (and last) part of Zarathustra, a kind of sublime finale, which is not at all meant for the public".

The first three parts were initially published individually and were first published together in a single volume in 1887. The fourth part was written in 1885. While Nietzsche retained mental capacity and was involved in the publication of his works, forty copies of the fourth part were printed at his own expense and distributed to his closest friends, to whom he expressed "a vehement desire never to have the Fourth Part made public". In 1889, however, Nietzsche became significantly incapacitated. In March 1892 part four was published separately, and the following July the four parts were published in a single volume.

Character of Zarathustra

In the 1888 Ecce Homo, Nietzsche explains what he meant by making the Persian figure of Zoroaster the protagonist of his book:

People have never asked me as they should have done, what the name of Zarathustra precisely meant in my mouth, in the mouth of the first immoralist; for that which distinguishes this Persian from all others in the past is the very fact that he was the exact reverse of an immoralist. Zarathustra was the first to see in the struggle between good and evil the essential wheel in the working of things. The translation of morality into the realm of metaphysics, as force, cause, end-in-itself, is his work. But the very question suggests its own answer. Zarathustra created this most portentous of all errors,—morality; therefore he must be the first to expose it. Not only because he has had longer and greater experience of the subject than any other thinker,—all history is indeed the experimental refutation of the theory of the so-called moral order of things,—but because of the more important fact that Zarathustra was the most truthful of thinkers. In his teaching alone is truthfulness upheld as the highest virtue—that is to say, as the reverse of the cowardice of the "idealist" who takes to his heels at the sight of reality. Zarathustra has more pluck in his body than all other thinkers put together. To tell the truth and to aim straight: that is the first Persian virtue. Have I made myself clear? ... The overcoming of morality by itself, through truthfulness, the moralist's overcoming of himself in his opposite—in me—that is what the name Zarathustra means in my mouth.

— Ecce Homo, "Why I Am a Fatality"

Thus, "s Nietzsche admits himself, by choosing the name of Zarathustra as the prophet of his philosophy in a poetical idiom, he wanted to pay homage to the original Aryan prophet as a prominent founding figure of the spiritual-moral phase in human history, and reverse his teachings at the same time, according to his fundamental critical views on morality. The original Zoroastrian world-view interpreted being on the basis of the universality of the moral values and saw the whole world as an arena of the struggle between two fundamental moral elements, Good and Evil, depicted in two antagonistic divine figures . Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, in contrast, puts forward his ontological immoralism and tries to prove and reestablish the primordial innocence of beings by destroying philosophically all moralistic interpretations and evaluations of being".

Synopsis

First part

The book begins with a prologue that sets up many of the themes that will be explored throughout the work. Zarathustra is introduced as a hermit who has lived ten years on a mountain with his two companions, an eagle and a serpent. One morning – inspired by the sun, which is happy only when it shines upon others – Zarathustra decides to return to the world and share his wisdom. Upon descending the mountain, he encounters a saint living in a forest, who spends his days praising God. Zarathustra marvels that the saint has not yet heard that "God is dead".

Arriving at the nearest town, Zarathustra addresses a crowd which has gathered to watch a tightrope walker. He tells them that mankind's goal must be to create something superior to itself – a new type of human, the Übermensch. All men, he says, must be prepared to will their own destruction in order to bring the Übermensch into being. The crowd greets this speech with scorn and mockery, and meanwhile the tightrope show begins. When the rope-dancer is halfway across, a clown comes up behind him, urging him to get out of the way. The clown then leaps over the rope-dancer, causing the latter to fall to his death. The crowd scatters; Zarathustra takes the corpse of the rope-dancer on his shoulders, carries it into the forest, and lays it in a hollow tree. He decides that from this point on, he will no longer attempt to speak to the masses, but only to a few chosen disciples.

There follows a series of discourses in which Zarathustra overturns many of the precepts of Christian morality. He gathers a group of disciples, but ultimately abandons them, saying that he will not return until they have disowned him.

Second part

Zarathustra retires to his mountain cave, and several years pass by. One night, he dreams that he looks into a mirror and sees the face of a devil instead of his own; he takes this as a sign that his doctrines are being distorted by his enemies, and joyfully descends the mountain to recover his lost disciples.

More discourses follow, which continue to develop the themes of the death of God and the rise of the Übermensch, and also introduce the concept of the will to power. There are hints, however, that Zarathustra is holding something back. A series of dreams and visions prompt him to reveal this secret teaching, but he cannot bring himself to do so. He withdraws from his disciples once more, in order to perfect himself.

Third part

While journeying home, Zarathustra is waylaid by the spirit of gravity, a dwarf-like creature which clings to his back and whispers taunts into his ear. Zarathustra at first becomes despondent, but then takes courage; he challenges the spirit to hear the "abysmal thought" which he has so far refrained from speaking. This is the doctrine of eternal recurrence. Time, says Zarathustra, is infinite, stretching both forward and backward into eternity. This means that everything that happens now must have happened before, and that every moment must continue to repeat itself eternally.

As he speaks, Zarathustra hears a dog howl in terror, and then he sees a new vision – a shepherd choking on a black serpent which has crept into his throat. At Zarathustra's urging, the shepherd bites the serpent's head off and spits it out. In that moment, the shepherd is transformed into a laughing, radiant being, something greater than human.

Zarathustra continues his journey, delivering more discourses inspired by his observations. Arriving at his mountain cave, he remains there for some time, reflecting on his mission. He is disgusted at humanity's pettiness, and despairs at the thought of the eternal recurrence of such an insignificant race. Eventually, however, he discovers his own longing for eternity, and sings a song in celebration of eternal return.

Fourth part

Zarathustra begins to grow old as he remains secluded in his cave. One day, he is visited by a soothsayer, who says that he has come to tempt Zarathustra to his final sin – compassion (mitleiden, which can also be translated as "pity"). A loud cry of distress is heard, and the soothsayer tells Zarathustra that "the higher man" is calling to him. Zarathustra is alarmed, and rushes to the aid of the higher man.

Searching through his domain for the person who uttered the cry for help, Zarathustra encounters a series of characters representative of various aspects of humanity. He engages each of them in conversation, and ends by inviting each one to await his return in his cave. After a day's search, however, he is unable to find the higher man. Returning home, he hears the cry of distress once more, now coming from inside his own cave. He realises that all the people he has spoken to that day are collectively the higher man. Welcoming them to his home, he nevertheless tells them that they are not the men he has been waiting for; they are only the precursors of the Übermensch.

Zarathustra hosts a supper for his guests, which is enlivened by songs and arguments, and ends in the facetious worship of a donkey. The higher men thank Zarathustra for relieving them of their distress and teaching them to be content with life.

The following morning, outside his cave, Zarathustra encounters a lion and a flock of doves, which he interprets as a sign that those whom he calls his children are near. As the higher men emerge from the cave, the lion roars at them, causing them to cry out and flee. Their cry reminds Zarathustra of the soothsayer's prediction that he would be tempted into feeling compassion for the higher man. He declares that this is over, and that from this time forward he will think of nothing but his work.

Themes

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Friedrich Nietzsche, Edvard Munch, 1906

Scholars have argued that "the worst possible way to understand Zarathustra is as a teacher of doctrines". Nonetheless Thus Spoke Zarathustra "has contributed most to the public perception of Nietzsche as philosopher – namely, as the teacher of the 'doctrines' of the will to power, the overman and the eternal return".

Will to power

Main article: Will to power

Nietzsche's thinking was significantly influenced by the thinking of Arthur Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer emphasised will, and particularly will to live. Nietzsche emphasised Wille zur Macht, or will to power.

Nietzsche was not a systematic philosopher and left much of what he wrote open to interpretation. Receptive fascists are said to have misinterpreted the will to power, having overlooked Nietzsche's distinction between Kraft ("force" or "strength") and Macht ("power" or "might").

Scholars have often had recourse to Nietzsche's notebooks, where will to power is described in ways such as "willing-to-become-stronger , willing growth".

Übermensch

Main article: Übermensch

It is allegedly "well-known that as a term, Nietzsche’s Übermensch derives from Lucian of Samosata's hyperanthropos". This hyperanthropos, or "overman," appears in Lucian's Menippean satire Κατάπλους ἢ Τύραννος, usually translated Downward Journey or The Tyrant. This hyperanthropos is "imagined to be superior to others of 'lesser' station in this-worldly life and the same tyrant after his (comically unwilling) transport into the underworld". Nietzsche celebrated Goethe as an actualisation of the Übermensch.

Eternal recurrence

Main article: Eternal return
Nietzsche in the care of his sister in 1899

Nietzsche includes some brief writings on eternal recurrence in his earlier book The Gay Science. Zarathustra also appears in that book. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the eternal recurrence is, according to Nietzsche, the "fundamental idea of the work".

Interpretations of the eternal recurrence have mostly revolved around cosmological and attitudinal and normative principles.

As a cosmological principle, it has been supposed to mean that time is circular, that all things recur eternally. A weak attempt at proof has been noted in Nietzsche's notebooks, and it is not clear to what extent, if at all, Nietzsche believed in the truth of it. Critics have mostly dealt with the cosmological principle as a puzzle of why Nietzsche might have touted the idea.

As an attitudinal principle it has often been dealt with as a thought experiment, to see how one would react, or as a sort of ultimate expression of life-affirmation, as if one should desire eternal recurrence.

As a normative principle, it has been thought of as a measure or standard, akin to a "moral rule".

Criticism of religion

Nietzsche studied extensively and was very familiar with Schopenhauer and Christianity and Buddhism, each of which he considered nihilistic and "enemies to a healthy culture". Thus Spoke Zarathustra can be understood as a "polemic" against these influences.

Though Nietzsche "probably learned Sanskrit while at Leipzig from 1865 to 1868", and "was probably one of the best read and most solidly grounded in Buddhism for his time among Europeans", Nietzsche was writing when Eastern thought was only beginning to be acknowledged in the West, and Eastern thought was easily misconstrued. Nietzsche's interpretations of Buddhism were coloured by his study of Schopenhauer, and it is "clear that Nietzsche, as well as Schopenhauer, entertained inaccurate views of Buddhism". An egregious example has been the idea of śūnyatā as "nothingness" rather than "emptiness". "Perhaps the most serious misreading we find in Nietzsche's account of Buddhism was his inability to recognize that the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness was an initiatory stage leading to a reawakening". Nietzsche dismissed Schopenhauer and Christianity and Buddhism as pessimistic and nihilistic, but, according to Benjamin A. Elman, "hen understood on its own terms, Buddhism cannot be dismissed as pessimistic or nihilistic". Moreover, answers which Nietzsche assembled to the questions he was asking, not only generally but also in Zarathustra, put him "very close to some basic doctrines found in Buddhism". An example is when Zarathustra says that "the soul is only a word for something about the body".

Nihilism

One of the most vexed points in discussions of Nietzsche has been whether or not he was a nihilist. Though arguments have been made for either side, what is clear is that Nietzsche was at least interested in nihilism.

As far as nihilism touched other people, at least, metaphysical understandings of the world were progressively undermined until people could contend that "God is dead". Without God, humanity was greatly devalued. Without metaphysical or supernatural lenses, humans could be seen as animals with primitive drives which were or could be sublimated. According to Hollingdale, this led to Nietzsche's ideas about the will to power. Likewise, "Sublimated will to power was now the Ariadne's thread tracing the way out of the labyrinth of nihilism".

Style

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"On Reading and Writing.
Of all that is written, I love only that which one writes with one's own blood".
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Volume VI, 1899, C. G. Naumann, Leipzig.

The nature of the text is musical and operatic. While working on it Nietzsche wrote "of his aim 'to become Wagner's heir'". Nietzsche thought of it as akin to a symphony or opera. "No lesser a symphonist than Gustav Mahler corroborates: 'His Zarathustra was born completely from the spirit of music, and is even "symphonically constructed"'". Nietzsche

later draws special attention to "the tempo of Zarathustra's speeches" and their "delicate slowness"  – "from an infinite fullness of light and depth of happiness drop falls after drop, word after word" – as well as the necessity of "hearing properly the tone that issues from his mouth, this halcyon tone".

The length of paragraphs and the punctuation and the repetitions all enhance the musicality.

The title is Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Much of the book is what Zarathustra said. What Zarathustra says

is throughout so highly parabolic, metaphorical, and aphoristic. Rather than state various claims about virtues and the present age and religion and aspirations, Zarathustra speaks about stars, animals, trees, tarantulas, dreams, and so forth. Explanations and claims are almost always analogical and figurative.

Nietzsche would often appropriate masks and models to develop himself and his thoughts and ideas, and to find voices and names through which to communicate. While writing Zarathustra, Nietzsche was particularly influenced by "the language of Luther and the poetic form of the Bible". But Zarathustra also frequently alludes to or appropriates from Hölderlin's Hyperion and Goethe's Faust and Emerson's Essays, among other things. It is generally agreed that the sorcerer is based on Wagner and the soothsayer is based on Schopenhauer.

The original text contains a great deal of word-play. For instance, words beginning with über ('over, above') and unter ('down, below') are often paired to emphasise the contrast, which is not always possible to bring out in translation, except by coinages. An example is untergang (lit. 'down-going'), which is used in German to mean 'setting' (as in, of the sun), but also 'sinking', 'demise', 'downfall', or 'doom'. Nietzsche pairs this word with its opposite übergang ('over-going'), used to mean 'transition'. Another example is übermensch ('overman' or 'superman').

Reception

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Nietzsche considered Thus Spoke Zarathustra his magnum opus, writing:

With I have given mankind the greatest present that has ever been made to it so far. This book, with a voice bridging centuries, is not only the highest book there is, the book that is truly characterized by the air of the heights—the whole fact of man lies beneath it at a tremendous distance—it is also the deepest, born out of the innermost wealth of truth, an inexhaustible well to which no pail descends without coming up again filled with gold and goodness.

— Ecce Homo, "Preface" §4, translated by W. Kaufmann

In a letter of February 1884, he wrote:

With Zarathustra I believe I have brought the German language to its culmination. After Luther and Goethe there was still a third step to be made.

To this, Parkes has said: "Many scholars believe that Nietzsche managed to make that step". But critical opinion varies extremely. The book is "a masterpiece of literature as well as philosophy" and "in large part a failure".

The style of the book, along with its ambiguity and paradoxical nature, has helped its eventual enthusiastic reception by the reading public but has frustrated academic attempts at analysis (as Nietzsche may have intended). Thus Spoke Zarathustra remained unpopular as a topic for scholars (especially those in the Anglo-American analytic tradition) until the latter half of the 20th century brought widespread interest in Nietzsche and his unconventional style.

The critic Harold Bloom criticized Thus Spoke Zarathustra in The Western Canon (1994), calling it "a gorgeous disaster" and "unreadable". Other commentators have suggested that Nietzsche's style is intentionally ironic for much of the book.

English translations

The first English translation of Zarathustra was published in 1896 by Alexander Tille.

Common (1909)

Thomas Common published a translation in 1909 which was based on Alexander Tille's earlier attempt.

Kaufmann's introduction to his own translation included a blistering critique of Common's version; he notes that in one instance, Common has taken the German "most evil" and rendered it "baddest", a particularly unfortunate error not merely for his having coined the term "baddest", but also because Nietzsche dedicated a third of The Genealogy of Morals to the difference between "bad" and "evil". This and other errors led Kaufmann to wonder whether Common "had little German and less English".

The German text available to Common was considerably flawed.

From Zarathustra's Prologue:

The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Superman shall be the meaning of the earth!
I conjure you, my brethren, remain true to the earth, and believe not those who speak unto you of superearthly hopes! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not.

Kaufmann (1954) and Hollingdale (1961)

The Common translation remained widely accepted until more critical translations, titled Thus Spoke Zarathustra, were published by Walter Kaufmann in 1954, and R.J. Hollingdale in 1961.

Clancy Martin states the German text from which Hollingdale and Kaufmann worked was untrue to Nietzsche's own work in some ways. Martin criticizes Kaufmann for changing punctuation, altering literal and philosophical meanings, and dampening some of Nietzsche's more controversial metaphors. Kaufmann's version, which has become the most widely available, features a translator's note suggesting that Nietzsche's text would have benefited from an editor; Martin suggests that Kaufmann "took it upon himself to become editor".

Kaufmann, from Zarathustra's Prologue:

The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not.

Hollingdale, from Zarathustra's Prologue:

The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the Superman shall be the meaning of the earth!
I entreat you, my brothers, remain true to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of superterrestrial hopes! They are poisoners, whether they know it or not.

21st-century translations

Parkes (2005)

Graham Parkes describes his own 2005 translation as trying to convey the musicality of the text.

Del Caro (2006)

In 2006, Cambridge University Press published a translation by Adrian Del Caro, edited by Robert Pippin.

Further reading

Selected editions

The book Thus Spoke Zarathustra with pictures by Lena Hades in German and Russian

English

German

Commentaries and introductions

English

German

See also

References

Notes

Citations

  1. Del Caro and Pippin, "Introduction" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Cambridge, 2006.
  2. Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 2: Half an orphan" in The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche, Cambridge University Press
  3. Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 3: The Discovery of Writing" in The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche, Cambridge University Press
  4. Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 4: The Discovery of Self" in The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche, Cambridge University Press
  5. Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 5: Soul-building: the theory" in The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche, Cambridge University Press
  6. Blue, D. (2016), "Chapter 13: 'Become what you are'" in The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche, Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ Hollingdale, "Introduction" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Penguin
  8. Gutmann, James. 1954. "The 'Tremendous Moment' of Nietzsche's Vision." The Journal of Philosophy 51(25):837–42. doi:10.2307/2020597. JSTOR 2020597.
  9. ^ Parkes, "Introduction" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Oxford
  10. ^ Nietzsche, cited in Parkes, "Introduction" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Oxford
  11. ^ "NIETZSCHE AND PERSIA". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  12. "The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ecce Homo, by Friedrich Nietzsche". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  13. Pippin, Robert B. (2019), "Figurative Philosophy in Beyond Good and Evil", in The New Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche, pp. 195-221
  14. Johnson, Dirk R. (2019). "Zarathustra: Nietzsche's Rendezvous with Eternity". The New Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche. pp. 173–194. doi:10.1017/9781316676264.008. ISBN 978-1-316-67626-4. S2CID 171729848.
  15. Golomb, Jacob (2002). Nietzsche, Godfather of Fascism? On the Uses and Abuses of a Philosophy.
  16. Dunkle, Ian D. (2020). "On the Normativity of Nietzsche's Will to Power". The Journal of Nietzsche Studies. 51 (2): 188–211. doi:10.5325/jnietstud.51.2.0188. S2CID 229665706. Project MUSE 773967.
  17. ^ Babich, Babette, "Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Parodic Style: On Lucian’s Hyperanthropos and Nietzsche’s Übermensch" (2013). Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections. 56. https://research.library.fordham.edu/phil_babich/56
  18. Nietzsche, Friedrich (1911). Ecce Homo. Translated by Anthony M. Ludovici. Macmillan. p. 96.
  19. ^ Sinhababu, Neil; Teng, Kuong Un (2019). "Loving the Eternal Recurrence". The Journal of Nietzsche Studies. 50 (1): 106–124. doi:10.5325/jnietstud.50.1.0106. S2CID 171915841. Project MUSE 721006.
  20. ^ Elman, Benjamin A. (October 1983). "Nietzsche and Buddhism". Journal of the History of Ideas. 44 (4): 671–686. doi:10.2307/2709223. JSTOR 2709223.
  21. Parkes trans.
  22. ^ Pippin, "Introduction" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Cambridge
  23. Kofman, Sarah (March 2021). "And Yet It Quakes! (Nietzsche and Voltaire)". Paragraph. 44 (1): 117–137. doi:10.3366/para.2021.0358. S2CID 233912690.
  24. Behler, Ernst (1996). "Nietzsche in the twentieth century". The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche. pp. 281–322. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521365864.010. ISBN 978-0-521-36767-7.
  25. Bloom, Harold (1994). The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. New York: Riverhead Books. pp. 196, 422. ISBN 1-57322-514-2.
  26. ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich. Trans. Kaufmann, Walter. The Portable Nietzsche. 1976, pp. 108–09.
  27. ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich. Trans. Martin, Clancy. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. 2005, p. xxxiii.
  28. Nietzsche, Friedrich (1954). The Portable Nietzsche. trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Penguin.
  29. Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1961. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
  30. Parkes, Graham. 2005. "Introduction". In Thus spoke Zarathustra.

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