Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra begins with the line: "When Zarathustra was thirty years old he left his home and the lake of his home and went into the mountains." Zarathustra is a kind of modern day prophet. He leaves the world to live as a hermit in the mountains, but one day his heart is "transformed" and he feels the need to go back into the world of humanity. He first has a conversation with the sun and tells the sun that he has tired of all the wisdom he has accumulated during his time alone. He tells the sun that the reason he wants to return to humanity is so that he can spread the wisdom he has attained to all people.

As Zarathustra is coming down from the mountain, he encounters an old man. The old man tells Zarathustra that he saw him pass by ten years ago. The old man can tell that Zarathustra has been transformed. He warns Zarathustra not to return to civilization with the fire of his knowledge, for anyone who starts a fire will be punished as an arsonist. Zarathustra replies that he loves mankind. The old man asks him why he doesn't want to stay in the woods with the birds and the bears. The old man himself lives in the woods to get away from human beings, saying that they are "too imperfect" for him. He prefers to commune with God in the wilderness away from humanity. As they part, Zarathustra is surprised that the old man, as wise as he is, has not heard the news that Zarathustra has come to bring: "God is dead!"

Zarathustra enters a town, and he begins speaking to a crowd of people waiting to watch a tightrope walker. He begins to tell them about the "overman," a state of being that they are capable of entering. He says that as they laugh at the apes, so the overman will laugh at a regular human being. The people should no longer listen to anyone who tells them that their soul must escape their body to go to heaven, because God has died. The overman's greatest hour is when he overcomes feelings and states such as happiness, reason, virtue, and justice. When Zarathustra finishes, the crowd thinks he's been talking about the tightrope walker, and they laugh at him.

Zarathustra is shocked at the response he gets, and he continues to preach to the people. He tells them that, as human beings, they can "cross over" and "go under." This, he says, is the true way to sacrifice one's self to the earth and become an overman. The overman is a person who lives in order to know, who lives to create virtue, and who seeks no thanks for his virtue. The people still laugh at him, so Zarathustra decides to tell them of "the last human being." The last human being upon the earth will realize that human beings invented happiness. He will realize that love was simply an evolutionary reaction to the body's need for warmth. The last human being will not want wealth or poverty, nor will he desire poverty because both will be too burdensome. As Zarathustra finishes his first speech, the crowd laughs and mocks him. Zarathustra realizes that his words are not having an effect.

While the crowd is laughing, the tight-rope walker begins his routine. As the performer gets half way across the span of his rope, he hears a voice coming from behind him. The voice is telling the tight-rope walker to move out of the way, to go back to his tower, and suddenly the being behind him jumps over the tight-rope walker. The walker, so surprised by this, falls from his rope and lands next to Zarathustra, slowly dying from the fall. The tight-rope walker asks Zarathustra if he thinks he can stop the devil from dragging him to hell as he dies. Zarathustra only comforts him and tells him that hell no longer exists and that to die through the dangers of one's work is a great honor. Zarathustra sits next to the corpse until nightfall and then buries it.

Zarathustra brings the corpse to a graveyard where the gravediggers laugh at him for trying to steal a soul from the devil. On the way there, the jester who jumped over the tight-rope walker, causing his fall, sneaks up on Zarathustra and whispers in his ear to leave the town. He tells him that the pious hate him, as do the good and just, and that if he stays another day they will all kill him.

As Zarathustra walks on with the corpse, he becomes hungry and stops at a hut in the woods where an old man offers him bread and wine. After eating, he continues wandering for two more hours, finally stopping to sleep after he buries the corpse in the hollow of a tree. He wakens in the late morning and realizes that talking to the masses of people is like carrying around a dead corpse. He needs to find companions who will follow him around and learn from his teachings.

As Zarathustra thinks these thoughts, he looks up to see an eagle with a snake around its neck. The snake is not the bird's prey, however. They are friends, and to Zarathustra their friendship represents his need to couple his wisdom and his pride. If his wisdom were to leave, Zarathustra thinks, his pride must leave as well. The prologue ends with the words: "Thus begun Zarathustra's going under."

Analysis

In the prologue the reader is first introduced to Zarathustra, a man who ventured into the wilderness ten years ago and has found contentment and enlightenment during his time alone. Zarathustra is given the idea that because of his love for mankind he will venture down his mountain to proclaim to civilization that there is a better way to live. Zarathustra speaks to the sun, and seeing how the sun ascends and descends every day, decides he will do the same. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is filled with allusions to classical philosophy and literature. Zarathustra's conversation with the sun and his descent back into civilization is an allusion to Plato's Myth of the Cave in which a philosopher descends into a cave to share his insights.

Descending and ascending are important concepts in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In each case, Nietzsche describes a kind of transformation that happens to the individual. Zarathustra ascends to his mountain wilderness and becomes a different kind of being: an enlightened individual. He descends to become different again, a kind of prophet and philosopher. Throughout the work, Zarathustra talks of man's need to descend in order to ascend again and become something else.

One of the most important distinctions in Nietzsche's work is the contrast between Apollonian and Dionysian elements of the world. The Dionysian represents the chaotic and dark parts of humanity. Zarathustra has experienced these elements on the mountain, and they have led him to realize that God is dead. The Apollonian elements of the world represent order, reason, and culture. By being on top of the mountain, Zarathustra is surrounded by the Dionysian, yet his physical proximity to the sun represents his ability to talk with and understand the Apollonian. Both elements are important to understanding Nietzsche's philosophy in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Zarathustra's mission is to balance these opposing views and to help others balance them as well.

As Zarathustra descends from his mountain, he begins to encounter different kinds of people. He meets a hermit who lives in the wilderness so that he can praise God more fully. However, as Zarathustra says, the hermit doesn't realize that God is dead. It should be noted that the death of God is not the culmination of Zarathustra's philosophy but its starting point. For Zarathustra, the saint's communion with God is meaningless and an impediment to finding a true way to communicate with the world.

Zarathustra's first attempts to communicate his message to the masses are met with trouble. He immediately begins to preach to them of the overman, yet the crowd thinks Zarathustra is talking about the tight-rope walker they have come to see. Even thought the speech is a failure, it gives the reader a sense of Zarathustra's message nonetheless. According to him, the overman is "the meaning of the earth." Because God has died, there is no use in praying to Him or worrying about sin. Instead, the overman should only remain faithful to the earth. For Zarathustra, the tragedy is not that God has died, but that people still seek to find meaning in their lives from a dead God. If a person seeks a God who is dead, that person risks being confronted with nihilism - the conviction that there is no meaning in life. Nihilism is a state intolerable to human beings, but a belief in God, Zarathustra says, only numbs the soul. This is the lesson he means to teach with the parable of the last human being. Zarathustra does not want people to be faced with nihilism, so he offers an alternative.

His alternative is the overman. In German, the original word is ubermensch, which can also be translated as "superhuman." The overman is a being that has a new relationship to the earth and to nature. It is the highest form of being that a human can attain. Much as the ape evolved into the human being, according to Zarathustra, the goal of humans should be to then evolve into the overman. For Zarathustra, this promise of something better is what can take the place of belief in God.

The image of the tight-rope is thus an appropriate one for this first speech. For Zarathustra, human beings are torn between the beasts from which they have evolved and the overman they can become. The tight-rope walker, as he is walking across the rope, is teased by the voice of the jester behind him. The jester represents the voice of tradition. Nietzsche is telling the reader that attempting a feat such as trying to become an overman is a dangerous task, one that the voice of tradition will attempt to thwart. The jester eventually disrupts the tight-rope walker's trek, causing him to fall to his death.

As Zarathustra talks with the dying performer, the reader can see how foreign Zarathustra's message is to the society he has encountered. While the tight-rope walker attempts to talk of his eternal destiny - albeit a destiny in hell - Zarathustra simply tells the man that there is no hell, rendering the question of his eternal destiny moot. Zarathustra's conversion of the man to atheism secures a peaceful death for him. For Zarathustra, the man's life is meaningful because he dies in the face of the danger he lived in.

Zarathustra wanders through the forest, finds some food from another old hermit, and realizes that all his attempts to convey truth to people have been for naught. Everyone he meets heckles him and the jester who killed the tight-rope walker tells him that he needs to leave the town or he will be killed. After sleep, Zarathustra realizes that he must try a new strategy. Instead of speaking directly to the crowds, he needs to speak to a group of disciples.

Part one of Thus Spoke Zarathustra consists of the prologue and a series of speeches that Zarathustra delivers. The speeches are written to resemble the sayings of the Biblical prophets as well as ancient philosophical literature. The style is meant to remind the reader of a sermon or a homily. Zarathustra gives brief meditations and visions that allude to the teachings of Jesus and Socrates. The speeches cover a wide variety of topics and issues, but all are written to further the purpose of helping people to live better lives. Zarathustra tells the crowd in the prologue to live lives that "remain true to the meaning of the earth." Between speeches, there are brief moments of narration. Below, each speech is summarized and analyzed.

On the Three Metamorphoses

Zarathustra begins his first speech by describing the three stages through which a soul moves during its transformation. The use of the word "metamorphoses" has a double meaning here. Metamorphosis is the act of a change, which this parable certainly deals with, but metamorphoses are also brief mythical allusions, first used by the Roman poet Ovid.

The metamorphosis of the soul can best be described as a person's spiritual journey. The soul first becomes a camel, carrying heavy burdens. Then, the soul transforms again into a lion. Finally, the lion becomes a child. The camel is a beast of burden, and it represents the burdens that the laws and morality of religion place on individuals. These strictures carry the individual's soul into the desert. There, the soul transforms into a lion, fighting for its freedoms from the restrictions of religion. The lion fights viciously against the ingrained traditions of a society. The transformation of the soul into a lion is necessary to cast off the burdens of the camel. The soul must then become an innocent child once again seeking truth. By becoming a child again, the soul is able to gain its own sense of morality, not the morality imposed by religion.

At the end of this speech, Zarathustra goes to a town called The Motley Cow.

On the Teachers of Virtue

Upon entering the town, Zarathustra goes and sits at the feet of a wise and virtuous old man. The old man is teaching the town's youth of the great virtue of sleep. To the old man, nothing is more virtuous. The old man teaches that in order to attain such sleep, a person must keep forty other virtues and think of them at night. Only when one has realized these virtues can he fall asleep.

Zarathustra thinks that this teaching is nonsense. He correctly identifies the logic of the teaching as this: living life during the day is only something one does until hat person can sleep. Zarathustra says that the only situation in which he can imagine following such teaching is "if life [has] no meaning and if I [have] to choose nonsense." This passage contrasts Zarathustra's teachings to the philosophy of teachers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. These philosophers taught that life was something to be overcome because. For Zarathustra, life does have a purpose, and he plans to teach this purpose to his disciples.

On the Hinterworldly

The title of this speech refers to those who believe in a world beyond the current world, and the teaching is directed towards those who have faith in such a place. Zarathustra first tells of his own spiritual journey. He says that he once believed in God and the afterlife. Yet, he realized that there was no God; God, like all gods, sprang from the human imagination. Zarathustra blames the sick and weary for creating a god to distract them from their sickness and their weariness. Zarathustra proclaims that his teaching will show people a new way. Everyone can enjoy humanity instead of looking at it as something to be overcome in another world.

In this speech, Zarathustra deals with old religion. Religion's viewpoint is that the body and earthly matters are to be overcome so that a person can experience God, but Zarathustra shows that such beliefs are unfounded. Zarathustra places a great emphasis on the body and on earthly experience. Nietzsche is beginning to explain how all truth must now be found in a subjective experience. A man can no longer look to his community or to a higher being to find meaning. A man must look inside himself and his own existence to find truth and meaning.

On the Despisers of the Body

Zarathustra has harsh words for anyone who teaches people to despise the human body. He says that he does not want these teachers to learn his own philosophy. Instead, he thinks that they should simply follow their teachings and die. Zarathustra tells his listeners that only children believe in a soul. According to Zarathustra, there is only a body, and within that body is the self. The self is the ruler of the body, the essence of humanity. The self controls the ego, which in turn controls the pleasures and pains of life. What the self wants most of all is to "create beyond itself."

In this speech, Zarathustra compares a person's body to a kingdom in which the self is the absolute ruler of everything. Zarathustra's teaching presents a complication, however. If the self were the ultimate ruler of a person's body, why would it create pain at all? How can suicide be explained? Zarathustra answers that one who has decided to despise the body has led that person's self to despise his own existence. This, in turn, leads to the desire for self-destruction.

On the Passions of Pleasure and Pain

Although the title of this speech deals with passions and pleasures, the real subject of the speech is virtue. Zarathustra teaches that true virtue is a private matter that a person feels deep down in the self. Virtue arises from passions, and is a kind of passion itself. But it is not a universal law, such as a law from God or a truth that everyone can share. Virtue is a private feeling for the individual. Religion and morality view certain passions as wrong or evil, yet Zarathustra tells his listeners that all passions are permissible and can be turned into virtue. For Zarathustra, even passions like anger and hate have been transformed into virtues so that a person who follows Zarathustra's teaching will no longer do evil.

For Zarathustra, it is mankind's battle with the virtues within that has caused all the evil in the world. The old teacher from the first speech said that only sleep could overcome this battle. Zarathustra gives another way for human beings to triumph in this battle: the overman.

On the Pale Criminal

This speech deals with the institutions of justice and self-governance. To show this, Zarathustra speaks of the pale criminal, a man who has committed an instance of robbery and murder. The judges of this man suppose that he is a robber who committed murder, but Zarathustra has a different opinion. Zarathustra understands the motivations of the body and hypothesizes that this man is a murderer who committed robbery. He is a man whose soul wants blood, and the guilt he feels over the murder and his misunderstanding of the reasons behind it make him pale.

Zarathustra condemns the pale criminal because of his guilt. He calls the criminal a "heap of diseases." Zarathustra also condemns the judge because the judge believes himself to be good based on the old laws of religion and morality. In the end, Zarathustra says he prefers the "heap of disease" to the judge because at least the criminal has separated himself from the prevailing traditional teaching.

On Reading and Writing

The speech on reading and writing is concerned with how people communicate and how people understand one another. The speech starts with an aphorism: Zarathustra loves only what is written in blood. Aphorisms - short sayings that reveal a higher truth - are to be valued because they elevate the listener to a higher level of meaning. The listener will then look down on all those who do not understand. The ideas of ascending and descending once again come into play in this speech. If Thus Spoke Zarathustra had been written as an essay, most themes would be easier to comprehend. The idea of the overman, however, would be lost. The book is written as a series of aphorisms so that those who truly seek to know will ascend to a higher level.

The rest of the speech is about how Zarathustra's own elevation allows him to "dance" above those not as enlightened as he. He claims that the only god he could ever believe in is a god that can dance, and that a devil he can believe in is a devil of gravity and seriousness. Only through laughter can such a devil be killed. The speech ends with the image of Zarathustra flying high above the world, his enlightenment letting him look down on the rest of the world.

On the Tree on the Mountain

This speech takes the form of a conversation that Zarathustra has with one of his disciples. The young man has retreated from Zarathustra's teaching because it is awakening feelings in him that he fears. Zarathustra finds the young man on the mountain underneath a tree, and he tells him a parable of how the invisible wind is able to move the tree when human hands cannot. The young man is startled and confused by Zarathustra and begins to confess that the teachings have awakened uncertainties and doubts within him. Zarathustra shows him how the tree, though it reaches for the heavens, also has roots that reach for the dark and evil places of the earth. The young man agrees that this reflects his own situation. Zarathustra continues his parable by showing the young man that though the tree has grown tall, it waits for nothing but being struck by lightning. The young man's true feelings come out; he envies Zarathustra, causing the dark feelings within him. Zarathustra embraces the young man and begins to teach him how envy can be transformed and overcome.

This speech, returning to a narrative form, shows the impact that Zarathustra's lessons are having on his pupils. The young man is obviously talented, but he has been consumed by envy because he sees an enlightened being that has ascended even higher than he has. Zarathustra, using parables, begins to teach the young man how to overcome his envy, because envy, he warns, will thwart him in his attempt to attain the overman.

On the Preachers of Death

Zarathustra begins speaking again, this time turning his anger towards those who preach death. He has two religious categories in mind, the Buddhist who would say that "life is refuted" and the servants of the Christian work ethic who work all day, keeping themselves busy so that they can flee their inner-most selves. Zarathustra admonishes both of these preachers of death, telling them to follow their own teachings and to end their lives. Zarathustra mocks those who say sex is a sin, giving birth is a useless activity, and pity is needed. Zarathustra's teaching embraces life - every aspect of it - and not the death that other religious teachings embrace.

On War and Warriors

In this speech, Zarathustra addresses what is required of a disciple. Zarathustra tells his disciples that a person must fight to continue to grow and ascend into a greater being. One must hold envy and hate in his heart, just as warriors do, against those who have already ascended higher. Zarathustra loves his disciples, but he also teaches them how to engage in war in order to become overmen.

On the New Idol

In order to gain full control over the hearts and minds of his disciples, Zarathustra knows he must break the ideas and affiliations that his disciples held before they became his followers. The first conviction that Zarathustra must break is the dependence upon the new democratic state. The state is the new idol. Loyalty to a democratic state has overtaken belief in God as the chief idol of society. Zarathustra tells his disciples that people are the true noble creatures, not states. People serve life, he says, but a state only serves death by sending men to war and by lusting after "a hundred appetites."

In this speech, Nietzsche levels a criticism against thinkers such as John Locke who writes of the modern commercial state. The state, Nietzsche writes, is generous to people who bow down and worship it. Zarathustra insists that to ascend to the state of the overman one must overcome loyalty to the state. One must be loyal to the individual instead.

On the Flies of the Market Place

Zarathustra returns to the marketplace, the place where he encountered the tight-rope walker in the prologue. This time he is speaking to a disciple. After finishing his speech on the modern state, Zarathustra turns his attention to the marketplace, the place where ideas are exchanged. He begins to categorize the people of the market. He tells the disciple that what counts in a place such as this is showmanship. He says that there are great men, those who can attract a crowd and passionately express their opinions and ideas. These powerful people, the best showmen, are the politicians and intellectuals. They know best how to attract a crowd and to dominate the exchange of ideas. Zarathustra calls those who serve these powerful people the flies of the market. But, at the end of his teaching, Zarathustra shows the disciple that constantly being immersed in the marketplace is not the way to ascend. The exchange of ideas can only come to fruition when a person retreats into solitude to let the ideas come to light. Solitude is more necessary and noble than the market.

On Chastity

After encouraging his disciples to seek solitude, Zarathustra addresses chastity, a kind of solitude. Here, Zarathustra begins to explain the teachings that he began in previous sections. In the prologue, Zarathustra outlined his view that the body should experience pleasure and pain through the self. Here, Zarathustra shows that he is not advocating a hedonistic lifestyle in which a person can give into any desire. Zarathustra's true project is to have his followers channel their desires into spiritual desire that will help them ascend to the state of overman. For Zarathustra, not all are suited for chastity. For many, chastity only causes one to burn inside with lust and sensuality, desires that will eventually destroy a person. Chastity is a desirable state, but Zarathustra echoes the apostle Paul when he says that a person is better to marry than to burn with lust.

On the Friend

In this speech, Zarathustra speaks of friendship that is desirable to one that would be his disciple. Zarathustra says that friendship should inspire envy between friends, each friend urging the other through jealously to ascend to a higher level of enlightenment. For Zarathustra, all friendship must have this utility or it is a worthless relationship.

If a man sees excellence or flaws in his friends, Zarathustra teaches that he should seek solitude in order to reflect on how to attain the same excellence and how to overcome the same flaws in himself. In solitude, Zarathustra's disciples gain a spirit of victory, a spirit that leads them towards enlightenment.

On the Thousand Goals and One

In this speech, Zarathustra tells of his great travels. He has seen many cultures and civilizations and has found that all of them define goods and evils within them. However, these goods and evils are never the same. One culture might view as good what another culture views as evil, and vice versa. A culture finds worth in overcoming great difficulties. A culture identifies its highest need, its greatest difficulty, and when that thing is overcome, a culture calls it holy.

Zarathustra teaches his disciples that all great meaning is created by humans. Humanity creates laws and ideas to overcome the difficulties it faces in society. A person is first a creator who assigns value to things. Only second is the person an individual. People, Zarathustra teaches, value the community over the ego, which proves that humanity has not reached its highest goal. Zarathustra says that there have been a thousand different cultures and a thousand different goals, but the overman, the thousand and first goal of humanity, is the ultimate goal.

On Love of the Neighbor

Zarathustra turns the lessons of the great prophets on their heads. Should people love their neighbors? Zarathustra answers no; a person should love himself more than he loves his neighbor. Until a person truly recognizes the sacred nature of his individuality, he will not become the overman. Zarathustra claims that people love their neighbors because they want someone to think highly of them. Loving one's neighbor is actually a selfish thing, but people don't think of it this way. For Zarathustra, the desire to reach the goal of overman should be greater than the desire to love one's neighbor. Instead of finding a neighbor, Zarathustra encourages his disciples to find a friend to compete with for enlightenment.

On the Way of the Creator

Zarathustra has now begun to create the kind of disciple that will follow his teachings and strive to attain the level of overman. To achieve this goal, his disciples must go into solitude, as mentioned before. This speech tells a disciple what to expect when he does venture into that solitude. Zarathustra tells his disciples that even though they are leaving the conventions of the world, they will still carry the voice of the "herd" with them. This voice will make them feel guilty for going their own way, but once the disciples overcome this guilt, they will be free to dictate their own rules and laws for themselves. The "herd" will disapprove of this, but it is a necessary step on the way to the overman.

Zarathustra tells the disciple that the one who goes into solitude - the one who begins to ascend to the overman - will be the one that the "herd" will hate the most. Zarathustra himself discovers this after his encounter with the masses in the market. Zarathustra tells his disciple that if he wants to be a star, he "must shine through for them all the more!" Zarathustra warns that the one in solitude will meet many enemies, but the worst enemy will always be the self. The self will want to go back to the "herd" and will try to sabotage the ascension.

On Little Women Old and Young

This speech opens with someone taunting Zarathustra, asking him why he sneaks around as if he is concealing something beneath his coat. Zarathustra answers that he is concealing something: a great truth that threatens to cry out. He tells the mocker that he met an old woman on the road that day, and the old woman wanted Zarathustra to speak to her about women. Zarathustra replied that he should only speak to men about women (implying that he can only teach men of the deceit of women) but he consented to talk to the old woman anyway.

Zarathustra tells the old woman that a woman's only role is to be pregnant. He calls man a warrior and woman a warrior's "dangerous plaything." The woman should be for the man's pleasure and nothing more. A man, Zarathustra says, is childish and needs a plaything. This is the role that a woman can fill. A woman's greatest challenge is to be the one that can give birth to an overman.

Zarathustra then changes the tone of the teaching to show what a woman's love is meant to do. A woman should give, sacrificially, to a man. Her love should be a wonderful - yet fearful - thing for a man. He should play with her love, yet also be afraid of it. When a woman gives such love, she becomes obedient to her husband and thus fulfills her true desires. A man's desires are deep and strong, according to Zarathustra, and a woman can only intuit such desires.

The old woman, a sly character, tells Zarathustra that his teachings are good, even though he has so little contact with women. This is meant to be a playful taunt. Acknowledging that Zarathustra's teaching is for young women, not old women, the old woman then goes to give Zarathustra's teaching to the young women of the town.

On the Adder's Bite

Zarathustra falls asleep under a fig tree and an adder appears and bites him on the neck. Zarathustra is awakened by the bite and stares into the snake's eyes. The snake tries to get away, but Zarathustra catches him and thanks him for the bite. The adder replies that his bite can kill a man, but Zarathustra tells the snake that his bite could not kill "a dragon." Zarathustra tells the snake to take back his poison, and the snake licks the wound clean.

Zarathustra's disciples ask what the point of this story is. Zarathustra begins to explain what their relationship to others should be. Zarathustra's teachings are a refutation of the New Testament's imperative to do good. Instead, Zarathustra tells his disciples that a person should give others what they deserve. Zarathustra does not try to do good to the snake that bites him. Instead, since the snake knows that Zarathustra should kill him, Zarathustra forces the snake to clean his wound.

In Zarathustra's world, taking revenge is more humane than not taking revenge. If a person does wrong to another person, that person should return the wrong. This is the kind of justice administered by the overman. The "good" of the world might not agree with such a teaching, but Zarathustra says that those who subscribe to such concepts of good and evil are condemned anyway.

On Child and Marriage

Zarathustra begins speaking to a disciple who is about to get married. Zarathustra asks the young man if he has the "right" to get married. He tells the young man that many men seek marriage and children out of unworthy desires: neediness, loneliness, or animal cravings for sex or companionship. Instead, a man should want a wife and children as monuments to his enlightenment. He should want children so that he can raise them to attain the state of overman. Zarathustra is not opposed to children or marriage, but without the correct motivation, these can be weights on a man's soul.

Zarathustra teaches that many men go forth to look for a wife, but instead fall prey to their own lust and animal desires. This is how a man gets into a bad marriage where the woman controls him or the relationship between the two is a burdensome one. The correct love between a man and a woman is one in which both seek a higher existence and an enlightenment. A man should want most of all to attain the state of overman, and his wife and children should only be aides in that journey.

On Free Death

Zarathustra teaches that one should "die at the right time." He says that everyone sees dying as an important event, but people should not celebrate death. Death will only be an important event - an event to be celebrated - when a person's death becomes a "goad and a promise to the living" to become the overman. The correct way for a person to die is to die by giving hope and promise of the overman to those around him. The second best way for a person to die, Zarathustra teaches, is to die fighting.

Zarathustra then outlines different kinds of people and the different ways they will die. Some will live too long and become too old for their truths. Some are like apples that only become ripe in the fall; they are sour until later in life, but then become ripe for the truth of Zarathustra's teachings. Some will never find truth, and Zarathustra tells these people that they should wish for their own deaths.

Zarathustra laments that the preachers of the day only preach for a "slow death" and not for the right kind of death. He laments that Jesus died too young, brought about by the evil with which he surrounded himself. Jesus, Zarathustra says, would have "learned to live and to love the earth" if he had only stayed in the desert and not come amongst other people. Zarathustra predicts that his own death will be a wonderful occasion because his disciples around him will carry on his teachings of the overman. In a way, Zarathustra is not following his own teaching. He could have died earlier, but now, he says, the joy of expecting that his disciples will carry on the ideal of the overman makes his lingering on earth worthwhile.

On the Bestowing Virtue

The time has come for Zarathustra to leave The Motley Cow, and he and his disciples walk out of town. As they are walking, Zarathustra tells them that he wants to walk alone. His disciples give him a staff on which he can lean as a present. Zarathustra is very pleased with the present and he gives them a teaching.

He compares their search for the overman to the mining of gold. Gold, he tells them, is valuable because it is uncommon. Their virtue is the same way. It is an uncommon virtue for a man to seek to ascend to the level of overman, but because it is uncommon it will soon become very valuable. Soon, men's souls will strive for the "treasures and gems" of the overman. This is selfishness, but it is a good selfishness that Zarathustra calls holy. It is a good selfishness because, although Zarathustra and his disciples take these virtues for themselves, they do so in hope of bringing the overman to the rest of mankind.

There is another selfishness as well: a sick selfishness. This is a selfishness that takes for itself but has no desire to help mankind. This selfishness does not care if others ascend to the overman. A person who looks through history will be able to see signs of these two kinds of selfishness and must be able to see the underlying passions for good and evil. Zarathustra is a man who can read such signs. He points his disciples to the path to ascension.

Zarathustra then teaches his disciples that they should devote their attention to the earth, to spreading the good news of the overman. He tells them that humanity is a mistake, an error. Because of this mistake, madness has overcome men throughout history. Zarathustra gives his disciples the teaching that will help humanity ascend to the overman. Like physicians, Zarathustra's disciples should keep themselves healthy while also working towards the health of other people. This part of the teaching ends with an enthusiastic declaration that the earth can recover and that humanity can be redeemed through the overman.

Zarathustra ends this speech by telling his disciples that he is leaving them and that they should leave him as well. They should go away and even be ashamed of Zarathustra, in case he was misleading them with his teaching. He puts a twist on the New Testament teaching by telling them that a person of knowledge must be able to love his enemies and hate his friends. Zarathustra tells them this in case they have begun to idolize him instead of his quest for enlightenment. He wants them to focus on themelves. Their own attempts at becoming the overman are more important than Zarathustra himself. When they have truly ascended, Zarathustra will meet up with them again. They will all meet again, he tells them, to proclaim that "Dead are all gods: now we want the overman to live."

The Child With the Mirror

The first speech of the second section begins much like part one did. Zarathustra, having left his disciples at the end of part one, returns to his solitary mountain and stays there for many years. Though he is lonely, he grows in wisdom. However, he has a dream in which a child comes to him with a mirror. Zarathustra looks into the mirror, but instead of seeing his reflection, he sees only "a devil's grimace and scornful laughter." He interprets this dream to mean that his teachings are in danger, that the enemies of his teachings have distorted his thoughts and led his disciples astray. His disciples are not mirroring his teachings in the correct way, which means the overman will not become a reality.

Zarathustra then begins to speak to the snake and the eagle on the mountain. He has broken his self-imposed silence, but he feels that it is necessary. He begins to use descriptive imagery to describe his return. He compares himself to a lake pouring into the sea and a warrior preparing to go into battle. He takes joy not only in the fact that he will be returning to his friends, but also in fact that he must destroy his enemies. Zarathustra knows that his anger will reinvigorate his teachings, even though his disciples might even be afraid of him. Zarathustra then leaves the mountain to return to mankind to give a new kind of wisdom to his disciples: a wild wisdom.

On the Blessed Isles

Zarathustra begins a new set of speeches not in the gentle way he spoke in part one, but in a harsh critique of the work that his disciples have tried to accomplish. Zarathustra reappears suddenly, comparing himself to a north wind that knocks down ripe figs from their tree. Zarathustra appears to his disciples during the fall season, but even with the beauty that surrounds them, he implores his disciples not to take joy in that beauty. Instead, he tells them to look forward to a future time, a time of the overman.

Zarathustra must remind his disciples that his teachings are for the coming of the overman and are not compatible with the teachings of Christianity or teachings of God. His disciples, it seems, had fallen prey to these Christian teachings. They have attempted to make Zarathustra's teachings into hybrid teachings incorporating a Christian version of the overman. Zarathustra strongly rebukes his disciples for this and tells them again that there is no God. He tells his disciples that "if there were gods, how could I stand not to be a god! Therefore there are no gods."

Zarathustra teaches his disciples again about the power of envy. Zarathustra knows that if God exists, the rivalry between his teaching of the overman and teachings of God would be unbearable. Instead, Zarathustra can see the future of his teaching; therefore, God must not exist. For Zarathustra, death is a better state of being than the possibility of unfulfilled accomplishments. In this teaching, Zarathustra again demonstrates the usefulness of envy.

To finish this speech, Zarathustra claims it has been the poets of the age that have created God or gods, and that "poets lie too much." Instead, Zarathustra compels his disciples to take glory in their death, not in their everlasting life. This is the kind of poetry, he muses, that will help to create the overman in this life. This is the kind of poetry Zarathustra himself seeks to create.

On the Pitying

In this speech, Zarathustra addresses those that think he has become too proud. Zarathustra tells his disciples that this kind of pride is appropriate for a "knower" like Zarathustra is. A person who does not know must compare himself to a person who does, but a person who is a "knower" can only seek to transform himself, ultimately, into the overman. This speech hints that the enemies of Zarathustra have made his disciples believe that they are foolish for thinking of themselves too highly. Zarathustra says this is not so. "It is better to do evil than to think small," he says. Zarathustra's enemies think small, but his disciples must become "knowers." Only then will they become the overman. The point of Zarathustra's speech is this: a person should not take pity on or identify himself with mankind. The only way to become the overman is to harden one's heart towards pity for mankind. Instead, one should show people the way to become "knowers" of the way of the overman.

On the Priests

As a group of priests pass by, Zarathustra takes the moment to show his disciples just how much the spirit of Christianity has distorted and manipulated the good intentions of mankind. The priests, Zarathustra says, are actually noble in intent, just as Zarathustra is. They are self sacrificing, just like Zarathustra, and they seek something higher, just as he does. It is not the priests' fault that they are misled. The notion of the Savior binds them to false notions of pity for mankind. The priests are Zarathustra's enemies because they teach mankind to be obedient to God and to the Church. Zarathustra teaches people to look beyond this to the goal of the overman.

It is not the priests themselves who are wrong; they have much inner strength, but they are misled by the nature of Christianity. Christianity makes them doubt what they think, putting emphasis on their hearts and on giving pity towards mankind. Christianity makes people believe that they cannot overcome themselves; they need the help of an outside God. Zarathustra teaches that one must become the overman by having a hard heart and envy towards those who are better. Christianity, Zarathustra says, is for those with a "sultry heart and a cold head," which are qualities not to be found in one of his disciples.

On the Virtuous

Zarathustra now addresses his disciples' disappointing behavior during his absence. Zarathustra mocks his disciples for thinking that they deserve something for being virtuous in his absence. Zarathustra says that there is no reward for being virtuous; not even virtue is its own reward. He tells them that their virtue should simply be a part of their being, not a series of acts done to gain some kind of reward.

Zarathustra is attempting to awaken envy in his disciples by treating them like children who do not understand. Though he explained in a previous speech that his disciples should be proud if they have knowledge that others do not, he now reproaches the pride that causes them to seek a wrong path on the way to the overman. The kind of pride that seeks reward from man is the opposite of the kind of pride that leads to the overman. Zarathustra tells them that though their virtue is like a child's toy, he will replace that toy with a newer toy with which they can play.

On the Rabble

Zarathustra then turns his attention to the masses of the unenlightened people. He admits that he actually abhors these people, calling them "rabble." This leads to a bigger, more existential question for Zarathustra: does life actually require this "rabble?" This is a sickening thought to Zarathustra because it presents the problem that all of humanity may not reach the overman if humanity needs the "rabble" in society.

Zarathustra finds comfort not in thinking about the necessity of the "rabble" but instead in envisioning a time when there will be no "rabble." One could say that Zarathustra is putting his faith in a time when the overman will rule, even if he is unsure that this future will exist. Zarathustra compels his disciples not to despair in the necessity of the "rabble" as he has done, but instead to envision their knowledge and their enlightenment that will "blow among (the rabble) like a wind and steal their breath away with my spirit...." Zarathustra's teaching is life to those who embrace it, but a death to the rabble who oppose it and cling to the notions of Christianity, God, and the society that has been created from them.

On the Tarantulas

Zarathustra gives his disciples a parable: a tarantula spins a web to coax its enemies into it. The tarantula then strikes with a poisonous bite. For Zarathustra, the tarantula is the teacher of equality, the one who says that all men are equal. But Zarathustra compares himself to the one who strikes at the tarantula's web in order to make it leave its cave. Zarathustra strikes at the teachings of those who preach equality in order to make them leave their caves and do battle with him.

Zarathustra believes that those who teach equality are preaching against nature. Nature, Zarathustra teaches, makes some superior to others. But the teachers of modern moral equality (i.e. - the teachers of Christianity and their descendants) proclaim that all people should be treated with justice as equals. This is foolishness according to Zarathustra. His disciples should not get caught up in such teaching. Zarathustra then condemns these teachers of equality as hypocrites. He says that all they lack "to be Pharisees" is power, yet through time and inequality they have actually gained that power. This is a distinction that Zarathustra says is key to understanding why he has to come back to his disciples. They were getting confusing his teachings and the teachings of those who promote equality.

Zarathustra does not promote equality. He promotes the overman: the very essence of inequality. One person must become greater than the others, and envy plays a crucial role in this process. Zarathustra says that life itself is always striving to become more powerful, to make itself higher than other forms and virtues.

By the end of the speech, Zarathustra says he has been bitten by the tarantula of the teachings of equality, but he leaves the interpretation of this metaphor to his disciples. He hints that revenge is the necessary reaction to being bitten by such teachings, but he tells his disciples to "bind him to this pillar," an allusion to Odysseus being bound to the mast of his ship so as not to be tempted by the siren's song. Here, Zarathustra does not want to be tempted into revenge by the bite of the tarantula of equality. He must continue on towards the goal of the overman and not be sidetracked by such things.

On the Famous Wise Men

This speech begins five chapters that deal with wisdom and the enemies of Zarathustra who posses it. This first speech, "On the Famous Wise Men," is directed towards a group that Zarathustra names only as "you famous wise men." Zarathustra mocks these men and their wisdom because, as he says, they serve "the people...and the people's superstition." He says that these men are not "free spirits" like he is. Their knowledge is self-serving; it only seeks to increase the wise men's fame and glory.

The importance of the speech "On the Rabble" is again shown here. The "famous wise men" are only famous because they give the people what they want. The reader is asked to imagine the great philosophers of the modern age and the political rebellion they put into place for the people. The desire to have the people lift them up becomes a stumbling block to these famous wise men, making them servants to the people. Now, Zarathustra says, they are tethered to their desire for fame and glory. They cannot be the free wind as Zarathustra is, and this is their folly and ruin.

The Night Song

This speech is actually a song sung by Zarathustra. It is the first song of the book. This marks a departure from the previous two styles we have seen in the book; that of narrative and that of the speech/teaching. The song gives the reader an insight into Zarathustra's personal thoughts and motivations from an interior view instead of having to construct his inner life through his teachings.

The song begins by lamenting the loneliness of being the only one that can bring this important teaching to the world. Zarathustra sees his calling as teacher to be both a blessing and a curse. He feels impoverished because his duty is always to give and never to receive, yet the love in his heart for mankind is beautiful to him as well. These are the things that both drive him and torment him. For the first time in the book we see Zarathustra's own envy. While he implored his disciples to envy those who have a great knowledge, Zarathustra himself envies those who receive. He wishes that he himself could be the one who receives and not the one who always has to give. The song ends as it began, at night and in darkness, and Zarathustra's soul again "breaks out of (him) like a well" and he desires to go and teach what he has discovered.

The Dance Song

Zarathustra is walking through the woods looking for a well when he comes upon a green field where he finds several girls dancing together. When they see Zarathustra they immediately stop dancing, but he tells them not to stop. He tells them that though they see in him darkness and fear, there is actually love in him and his teaching. To prove that he is not there to spoil their fun, he begins to sing them a song to which they can dance, a song with love in it.

The song is a playful conversation on a fishing trip between Zarathustra and an anthropomorphized character named Life. Life mocks Zarathustra for his teachings, saying that even if he cannot understand Life, she is not incomprehensible. Zarathustra is simply not sharp enough to comprehend her. There is a comparison here between the Wisdom that Zarathustra has been both proclaiming and battling and Life that he believes he cannot fathom. Life says that she can be fathomed only if Zarathustra does away with the necessities of Wisdom that he seeks.

Zarathustra sees himself as being caught in a lovers' triangle with Wisdom and Life, both calling him to abandon the other. This will lead Zarathustra to a greater revelation - the will to power - in part three. Life knows that Zarathustra loves her more than he loves Wisdom, but he is afraid to tell her. Zarathustra praises Wisdom, but she turns his praise on its head, suggesting that when Zarathustra praises his wisdom he is really praising life. It is clear that Life favors Zarathustra, though we are unsure at this point whether she has given her secret to him.

As the song closes, Zarathustra becomes sad. The sun has set, signaling the setting of Zarathustra's wisdom as well, and he is confused about what it is that he has been seeking. He tries to apologize to his disciples, but he has no answers for them. "Forgive me my sadness," he tells them. "Evening came: forgive me that evening came!" This signals a great confusion in Zarathustra's thought.

The Grave Song

The grave song is the last of Zarathustra's songs. This song, like the first song, is a song of solitude. The graves of which Zarathustra speaks are the graves of his past, parts of him that have died and lay out of his reach. As the song begins, Zarathustra decides to sail to these graves.

The first part of the song is Zarathustra's lament for the lost visions of his youth. He believes that these visions have been disloyal to him and have abandoned him. He then realizes that in actuality they have been murdered by his enemies. His youthful visions experienced the death that was meant for him.

The second part of the song is a curse on his enemies. Zarathustra condemns his enemies for stealing and killing his visions of eternity and the overman. He recounts all of the things he used to believe, explaining how all these ideas have been murdered. Though he realizes that he is no longer able to "dance...beyond all heavens..." he resolves to dance again and resurrect his hope.

The final part of the song is Zarathustra's resolution to regain those visions. Even though they have been taken from him by his enemies, he decides that he will no longer despair. Instead, through sheer force of will, he will regain those visions. Zarathustra realizes that "there is something invulnerable, unburiable in me, something that explodes boulders: it is called my will."

This song is an important turning point for Zarathustra. In it, the reader learns about his past before his first period of solitude. The reader learns that Zarathustra once had youthful visions but they were killed in him by the teachings of Christianity and modern society. Though those visions no longer exist, Zarathustra has made an important discovery: his will to power. What this will to power is and what it means will be explored throughout the rest of the book.

On Self-Overcoming

This speech is one of the most decisive speeches of the book. "On Self-Overcoming" is the fruition of Zarathustra's ideas in the second part of the novel. The speech is a conversation between Zarathustra and the "wisest ones," the great thinkers and philosophers from throughout the ages.

In the speech, Zarathustra shows how these philosophers' ultimate goals include a will to power. Though the philosophers claim to seek truth, they actually create the truth for those under them. The wisest ones have been creating a moral world that they can make to "kneel" before them. They create this world for those under them with their conceptions of what is right and wrong and what is good and evil.

Zarathustra shows how the philosophers have actually become the moral kings of the ages. All notions of right and wrong are based upon their work, he reasons, and this makes them very powerful. Zarathustra congratulates these men instead of challenging them. He acknowledges their greatness and their power, but at the same time he prepares a way to overcome their rule.

Zarathustra offers his views on humanity: the weak serve the strong, and the weak are served by those who are even weaker than they are. Zarathustra says that will to power is the pursuit of life. "...(F)or the sake of power (life) risks - life itself." Life's ultimate goal is not simply to stay alive. Life's ultimate goal is a will to power, a desire to be a master over other life. This, Zarathustra says, is the fundamental state of life. It is the reason that Zarathustra will be able to will himself to rise over the great philosophers of the ages. Zarathustra closes his speech by asking those around him to tell others about this will to power. A weakness of the old philosophers is that they kept their will to power to themselves. If others know of this true meaning of life, however, much will change in humanity and society. The old foundations of the world - Christianity and the modern morality of the age - will crumble under the realization of the will to power.

On the Sublime Ones

Having discovered the will to power and having briefly shown the kind of world to which such a discovery will lead, Zarathustra turns his attention to the modern institutions of knowledge and their deconstruction in the face of this will to power.

He turns first to the sublime, modern seekers of knowledge. He uses the imagery of storms and serenity to show how these modern wise men have been able to free themselves from the old superstitions of Christianity but have not been able to gain the serenity that Zarathustra has been able to gain. The sublime seeker of knowledge has "not yet learned laughing and beauty." Zarathustra says that the sublime one's difficulty is not being able to find beauty without willing it through violence. "To stand with muscles relaxed and with an unharnessed will: this is most difficult...," Zarathustra says.

Zarathustra's problem with these modern thinkers and philosophers is that they have not learned the secret of finding beauty as the early Greek philosophers did. Though these modern thinkers have become sublime because they have attained knowledge, they have not been able to overcome this sublimity to gain an even greater state. They have not mastered the ability to control and restrain their will.

On the Land of Education

The next three speeches Zarathustra gives outline the best parts of the modern world while highlighting the weaknesses of modern philosophers. After flying through the future and the past, Zarathustra returns to the present to speak to those concerned with modern liberal education. These men believe that they are masters of the present because they have mastered the past. Zarathustra shows them how, even though they mask themselves in the knowledge of the cultures of the past, they do not possess the true knowledge that Zarathustra himself possesses. They claim that they have no "beliefs" or "superstitions;" Zarathustra shows them that they lack belief only because they are "sterile." They do not have the knowledge that Zarathustra has.

To show that they are "sterile," Zarathustra tells the myth of the dead in Greek mythology and the story of Adam from Genesis. These people's beliefs have been taken from them like the rib from Adam's side, yet this has left them thin and frail like the dead. Zarathustra wants nothing to do with them because their knowledge does not lead to the ultimate goal of the overman.

On the Immaculate Perception

In this speech, Zarathustra confronts the practitioners of modern science and philosophy whose ultimate goal is to achieve a pure perspective, a completely objective state of mind. Zarathustra uses a parable of the moon to make his point. The moon, long a symbol of the feminine, is more like a barren, impotent man. The moon is the symbol of the modern philosopher who believes he can achieve pure objectivity. Such a man cannot produce offspring, and Zarathustra suggests that instead the moon will be overcome by the brightness of the sun, the symbol for the new age of the overman.

Zarathustra ridicules those who strive for a pure objectivity for being "content in viewing, with dead will, without the grasp and greed of selfishness...." This contentment in viewing will not lead to the overman, Zarathustra says, because "[whomever] cannot believe himself always lies." Pure objectivity is an illusion because, no matter what, each person will bring a particular perspective to what he sees. The goal is to believe in the individual. Zarathustra says that he himself was once like this before he saw a truer light: the knowledge of the will to power and the fulfillment of the overman. This light is like a sun that will eclipse the moon that is the myth of objective knowledge.

On Scholars

"On Scholars" begins with Zarathustra relating an incident in which he is asleep under a tree when a sheep comes and nibbles on the ivy wreath on Zarathustra's head. The sheep realizes that Zarathustra is no longer a scholar and it walks away. This parable is a symbol for the scholarly community that Zarathustra sees as a group of sheep who blindly and dumbly follow others. Zarathustra is proud that he is no longer a scholar in the old way. Instead, he says, he is "still a scholar to the children and also to the thistles and the red poppies."

Zarathustra begins to list the problems with the modern scholars. Zarathustra used to be a part of their group, but now he has found a simpler way to be. He no longer needs to approach complex, useless ideas with poison as the scholars do. Their work, Zarathustra says, is useless because it only "makes a modest noise." These scholars now hold a grudge against Zarathustra and try to silence him, but he will not be silenced; he will "stroll with [his] thoughts over their heads." These scholars cannot stop Zarathustra in his quest.

This speech does not address the scholars directly; it only describes them. Zarathustra claims that modern scholarship serves other powers such as democracy. Therefore, scholarship discounts men like Zarathustra as freaks too lowly for proper consideration. Zarathustra ridicules these scholars for not heeding his call regarding the overman and not understanding his notion of justice. Zarathustra says that human beings are not equal. Scholars are not "permitted to want" the overman as Zarathustra does because they have been subjugated by the ideals of modern democracy.

On Poets

This speech begins with a conversation between Zarathustra and one of his disciples. As Zarathustra relates a lesson to this disciple, the disciple asks him why he previously said that "the poets lie too much." Zarathustra feigns ignorance, saying that he does not remember saying such a thing. Zarathustra remembers and is actually laying a Socratic trap for his disciple. Zarathustra claims that he is a poet, and he asks the disciple if this means that he lies too much. When Zarathustra asks the disciple what he believes, the disciple answers "'I believe in Zarathustra.'"

Zarathustra begins teaching about the nature of the poet. The poet, he says, is attentive to nature. The poet creates gods and worlds between heaven and earth, but these gods and worlds are simply lies that enslave men. In this way, Zarathustra is a poet because he weaves the poetry of the overman and the age to come. This teaching makes Zarathustra's disciple angry because he feels betrayed by Zarathustra. Zarathustra looks inward to reconcile his deep revelation of the overman with the superficial revelations of previous poets.

Zarathustra is critical of the poets of previous ages because they created the gods that have kept man from realizing the state of overman. Zarathustra is also honest about the fact that he himself is a kind of poet, weaving tales of the overman. He suggests the possibility that his poetry is all lies just like the poetry of history. Zarathustra tells his disciple that, though he is a kind of poet, he is not like any poet that came before him because his teachings are deeper than theirs. While they created false worlds and gods, Zarathustra teaches a greater truth.

On Great Events

Near the Blessed Isles, where Zarathustra has returned to his disciples, there is an island with a volcano that the locals believe is a gateway to the underworld. A ship of sailors stops on the island, and while they are on the island, they see a vision of Zarathustra flying over them, saying, "It is time! It is high time!" The sailors are in awe of Zarathustra; they believe he is going off to hell. A rumor begins in the town that the devil has come for Zarathustra and his disciples become worried. On the fifth day, however, Zarathustra returns and tells a story of the "fire hound."

The fire hound, he says, is a disease on the skin of the earth. Zarathustra goes to find out who this fire hound really is and where it comes from. He asks it where it gets its nourishment and how it survives. Eventually, he challenges this fire hound.

The fire hound represents a rhetoric of revolution. Zarathustra claims that, like human beings, revolution is a disease on the earth's skin, even though it promises change and virtue. Zarathustra draws out the fire hound by challenging its teachings on revolution. Such thoughts do not bring about real change, Zarathustra charges, because they are bound together with ideologies. Real revolution is not about making the most "noise," Zarathustra says, it is about communicating the greatest ideas. Revolution is just as hypocritical as the state it purports to overthrow.

As the speech ends, Zarathustra's disciples have barely listened to his story and the teaching within it because they are too excited to tell him about the sailors' story and what Zarathustra's shadow said to them. Zarathustra realizes that his myth is growing too large. He begins to wonder about the words that the shadow said to the sailors.

The Soothsayer

This chapter begins, without warning, with a nightmare prophecy by a soothsayer. The soothsayer says, "I saw a great sadness descend over humanity... 'Everything is empty, everything is the same, everything was!'" Zarathustra awakens and realizes what the prophecy means: the long-awaited dark times of nihilism are approaching and his teachings are in danger. Zarathustra realizes that the prophecy is true and it makes him both weary and sad.

When Zarathustra returns to his disciples, he tells them of another dream in which he is a watcher of graves. He asks for their interpretation, and the disciple whom Zarathustra loves gives an interpretation that he hopes will cheer up his master. He tells Zarathustra that the dream means Zarathustra will laugh at all those whose teachings and wisdom only send others to their graves. He says that just as Zarathustra awakened from the dream and came back to himself, so his enemies will awaken from their dreams and come to understand Zarathustra's teachings. For a moment, this makes Zarathustra feel better, but then he looks into the face of the disciple and sees that the interpretation is wrong and the prophecy of nihilism will come true.

The disciple's interpretation is meant to make Zarathustra feel better. His disciple wants to show him how loyal he is to Zarathustra's teachings, but what Zarathustra begins to realize as the chapter ends is that his disciples have not been true to his teachings after all. This begins the closing chapters of the second part in which Zarathustra again realizes that his disciples have disappointed him. Zarathustra realizes that he must leave them at some point.

On Redemption

One day, Zarathustra is walking across a large bridge where he is met by a group of "cripples." They tell Zarathustra that, though the people have started to believe in his teachings, they will not truly understand until he is able to heal these crippled people. Zarathustra says that healing them would be the worst thing he could do; it would open up all the cruelties of the world to them. Zarathustra refuses to become a miracle worker, which is a possibility that tempts him. Becoming a miracle worker might raise his profile in the eyes of the people, but ultimately it will hinder his true calling. As Zarathustra finishes crossing the bridge, he is met by a giant ear that he realizes is actually a hideously deformed person. Zarathustra practices his teachings regarding pity, treating these crippled people with a hard heart in order to teach them the true way to approach the nature of the world.

Zarathustra begins to teach his disciples. This chapter is the climax of part two. In essence, it is a climactic part of the whole book. Zarathustra asks his disciples what they expect him to be: "...a poet? Or a truthful man? A liberator? Or a tamer? A good man? Or an evil man?" Zarathustra realizes that his true mission is to bring will to the people, yet he himself is not even advanced enough to break the will from its ultimate captor: time. Though will can liberate people, time is that "which claps even the liberator in chains...." The will cannot go back and change time. It seeks to impose its power on time, but it is still constrained by time. This, Zarathustra realizes, is an ultimate flaw in himself and in his own will to power.

On Human Prudence

In this speech, Zarathustra asks his disciple to try to understand his "double will." He explains how he longs for the overman yet is restrained by his love of humanity. This love of humanity is a prudence that Zarathustra realizes he must abandon in order to achieve his goal of the overman. He realizes that, though he loves humanity, he actually shows too much favor to the "vain." This has been holding him back. He is entertained by these "vain" people, so he spares them. He must rid himself of the hope and the enchantment that he feels for mankind. These are prudences that only weigh him down. The fourth prudence Zarathustra outlines in this chapter is the fact that he must hide himself from the people in order to achieve the overman because the people are "so estranged from greatness...that the overman would seem terrible to [them] in his kindness!" Zarathustra is preparing the people for his absence. He is coming to terms with the will to power that he will need to find in order to master time.

The Stillest Hour

This final chapter of part two shows Zarathustra as a man torn apart by his double will. Zarathustra tells his disciples about a voice that came to him at night during his "stillest hour." The voice goads Zarathustra to become more like a child. According to the voice, Zarathustra has grown weak and ineffectual. His love for mankind is keeping him from becoming the overman, and Zarathustra readily admits that he is weak.

In this speech, it is clear that Zarathustra knows what will is needed to effect the "eternal return," the coming of the overman. This will must be able to accept the accident of humanity in time as well as to show power over time. Zarathustra is reluctant to speak of this knowledge because he knows what fear it will strike in the hearts of people once he does return with such power. As the speech closes, Zarathustra weeps openly at again having to leave his friends. In the middle of the night, he once again walks away alone.

The Wanderer

Part three opens a short while after Zarathustra has left his disciples. He is venturing over a mountain ridge (echoing the previous part's theme of ascension) to get to the ports on the other side of the Blessed Isles. He plans to take a ship to cross the sea. Zarathustra reflects on his nature as a wanderer and a traveler and on the "last peak" that stands before him now. The one thing that must be mastered to reach his ultimate goal of the overman is his own self. Zarathustra is now alone and he knows he must ascend beyond "all things." As Zarathustra reaches the summit of the mountain, he gazes out over the sea and says that he "is ready" to descend into the pain and suffering that must accompany his final ascension. As he descends to the sea, he realizes that his great folly is his love of humanity. "Love is the danger of the loneliest one," he says. Zarathustra knows that he must overcome his desire to love the disciples he has left behind if he is to finally ascend and become the overman.

The opening speeches that make up this chapter set the stage for the hardship that Zarathustra will have to face in part three. In the end of part two, Zarathustra identifies his love and enchantment of humanity as the thing that ultimately holds him back from his destiny. This chapter gives Zarathustra time to reflect on that weakness as he journeys into loneliness and despair.

On the Vision and the Riddle

Zarathustra joins a ship that "[has] come from far away and [wants] to go still farther." For the first two days of his journey, Zarathustra refuses to speak to anyone on the ship because he is still so overcome with sadness. Yet, because he is "a friend of all who make distant journeys and do not like to live without danger," he speaks. Finally, "the ice of his heart" is broken. He tells the sailors a riddle that has come to him as a vision of the "loneliest one." Zarathustra tells his disciples of a dwarf who has accompanied Zarathustra on his journey. The dwarf mocks him by saying that even though he has tried to ascend to the greatest heights, he must now fall like a stone. Zarathustra eventually summons the courage to confront the dwarf. This courage, he says, is the pride of humanity because the "human being is the most courageous animal." Courage is the best slayer, he says; it can even slay death.

As Zarathustra confronts the dwarf, it hops down from his shoulder. They find themselves standing before a gateway. The gateway is marked "Moment" and there are two paths that have contradictory markings. They both claim to lead to an eternity. Zarathustra gives the dwarf a conundrum of time: "must not whatever can already have passed this way before? Must not whatever can happen, already have happened, been done, passed by before?"

This riddle is a presentation of Zarathustra's teaching of the "eternal return," the moment when the self accounts for and overcomes the restrictions of time. His teaching here is purposefully enigmatic because he wants the sailors to use their imagination to guess about whom Zarathustra is talking. Time is the great riddle; both he and his listeners must reckon with the concept of eternal time in order to achieve an eternal return. Later speeches will bring this riddle to light.

On Unwilling Bliss

Zarathustra continues to travel across the sea with bitterness in his heart until the afternoon of the fourth day. On that afternoon, he begins to enjoy being alone, remembering the time when he first found his disciples and taught them. This memory makes his heart happy. He knows now that he is going away from his disciples in order to "complete" himself. Such an act is actually an act of love for his disciples. Zarathustra is also overcoming his need for having disciples. Up to this point, his desire has been to teach others because of his love for mankind. Now he realizes he must cultivate himself. Zarathustra then compares his disciples to trees that must be replanted in order to stand on their own. This is what his journey will eventually accomplish. In part one, Zarathustra knows his disciples must betray him in order to grow. Now he sees a future time in which his disciples will be able to stand with him.

As the sun begins to set, Zarathustra knows his disciples are sad because of his imminent departure. He wishes that the happiness of the afternoon will leave him and enter his disciples. As night falls, Zarathustra waits for sadness to overtake him, but it never does. Zarathustra is again able to reflect. He ponders the signs that led to him to leave his disciples, and he thinks about his imprudent love for them that caused him to stay with them for so long. Now that he has found the strength to leave his disciples, his next feat of strength is to accomplish the task of overcoming himself, a task that he calls "something still greater."

Before Sunrise

Like the previous speech, "Night Song," this speech reveals something elemental about Zarathustra's teaching. While "Night Song" relates Zarathustra's teaching on envy, "Before Sunrise" outlines his "godlike desires." As Zarathustra looks into the sky at twilight, he uses religious language to speak of his desires for transcendence. He ascribes to the sky a kind of divinity.

Here, Zarathustra begins to understand the "silence" of the heavens and promises to emulate such silence. The sky's beauty is what gives the sky its power. Zarathustra is coming to understand himself as he is coming to understand the nature of the sky. He rejects the old notions of toiling underneath the sky. Instead, he embraces the sky as a divine presence and as a giver of life. Again, Zarathustra curses the scholars by comparing them to the clouds that "[strain]" the sky. These people "who learned neither to bless, nor to curse whole heartedly" rob Zarathustra of his "infinite...Yes and Amen." Zarathustra is seeking that which is beyond the middling values of this world, beyond such constructs as good and evil.

Zarathustra is now free to bask in his happiness. He seeks to baptize the world with his knowledge and with his eternal return. Zarathustra is on a journey to become like the heavens. He wants to become a being who is not governed by external reason or rationality. Zarathustra is seeking not to be responsible to any being higher than himself.

On Virtue that Makes Small

Zarathustra returns to his homeland, but instead of immediately venturing back to his mountain, he decides to stay and learn "what had transpired...among human beings...." He wants to find out if human beings have "become bigger or smaller." He sees a row of houses and he marvels at what they mean. He determines that, during his absence, human beings have become smaller. He then begins his speech on the virtue that makes humanity small.

In his speech, Zarathustra says that humanity is becoming smaller because of the teachings about happiness and virtue. These teachings are actually impediments to the true teaching of Zarathustra. They are "an obstacle to anyone who is in a hurry" to become the overman. The people do not forgive Zarathustra for shunning their ideas of virtue. The people envy the freedom that Zarathustra has attained. Humanity clings to the modern teachings of virtue, Zarathustra hypothesizes, because it wants to preserve comfort and prosperity. This has made humanity cowardly; it has taken away the courage needed to face death.

During the second part of the speech, Zarathustra mocks those that look down on him. The people, he says, are "amazed" to find that he has not come, like other prophets, to give them the same old teachings or praise them for their virtue. They do not understand that he is standing on the precipice of a new age. He taunts the people by telling them that he is "the godless one." He is not like the other prophets because his message is not about virtue or morality. He taunts them because they have not progressed; they have become "smaller." Zarathustra finishes by telling the people that he is an example of his own message and that the hour of his ultimate ascension is near.

This speech is a recognition that the old teachings of Christian virtue and modern philosophy's teachings of the self have failed to adequately advance the human race. Zarathustra, partly seeking to shock humanity into hearing his message and partly trying to offend those he sees as below him, chastises the people. Like John the Baptist, he announces the coming of a new age. Zarathustra will eventually eclipse these people and they will see the ultimate state of humanity: the overman.

On the Mount of Olives

This speech is a song for the season of winter, a season to which Zarathustra compares his own state. Winter, he says, is a hard-hearted state, a state full of silence that kills those who wish to make noise. Winter is an introverted season, encouraging a silent state that Zarathustra has come to love ever since the speech, "Before Sunrise."

Zarathustra sits in the market during the winter and practices this new state of being. He is talkative with the people, but only in a way that allows them to pity him while he keeps silent about the great secrets he holds. Zarathustra does not let his soul conceal anything, yet neither does he completely withdraw from the people. "Let them hear me chatter and sigh from winter cold," he says, "all these wretched, leering rascals around me! With such sighing and chattering I still escape their heated rooms."

Zarathustra is learning to temper his love of humanity while learning to live among men. Zarathustra says that winter is the perfect metaphor for such a state. It is a frigid season that repels people and causes their silence. It is a deathlike season, yet the cold must also necessarily live among the people, in their villages and in their marketplaces. Like Zarathustra, the cold is a state that the people cannot avoid.

On Passing By

After wandering among the people, Zarathustra comes to the gates of "the big city." There, at the gates, is a man who is supposedly a disciple of Zarathustra. This disciple tries to imitate Zarathustra's teaching. Zarathustra stops to listen to the man, and his words do resemble Zarathustra's teachings in some ways. The man curses the city and mocks its citizens for their decadence and their low spirit. The man implores his listeners to "spit on this city" and to look down upon it. The people call this teacher "Zarathustra's ape" because he imitates Zarathustra's words, yet his teaching is incomplete. While he mocks the city, he has no vision for what is next, for what is higher. Zarathustra looks at the city, and though he feels disgust and contempt for it, he gives the "ape" a piece of advice: "where one can no longer love, there one should... pass by!"

This speech shows how Zarathustra's teaching has been distorted in the public realm. The people mock this "ape" just as they mock Zarathustra, but Zarathustra is angry with this man. Though he echoes some of Zarathustra's words, he does not comprehend the ultimate sacrifice that is becoming the overman. Zarathustra's teaching to "pass by" shows that his own teaching has matured. Though he still despises the city just as this false disciple does, he no longer feels the need to condemn it publicly. Instead, he feels he can pass by the city as well as the fool who purports to be his disciple.

On Apostates

In "On Apostates," Zarathustra deals with those who have tried to learn from him during his journey. Perhaps driven to such a speech by the fool teacher in the previous chapter, Zarathustra gives a speech differentiating between those who follow him and those who are truly his disciples. The first kind of person, Zarathustra says, listens to his teaching at first, but then "[crawls] back to the cross" of traditional teachings and virtue when difficulty arises. For these people, the pressure and the temptation to embrace the old teachings is simply too much to bear. If a person follows his teaching, Zarathustra says, this person will also experience the hardships that he himself has had to go through. Those who waver cannot truly be called his disciples.

In the second part of the speech, Zarathustra speaks directly to these faltering disciples. He mocks them for their lack of courage. They want to believe in his teaching, but they also want to believe in the teaching of Christianity and hold on to the hope that there is a God. Zarathustra tells them that this is not the way. He predicts that a "dark night" is coming that will blacken the old ways of thinking. This is the threat of nihilism of which Zarathustra has been dreaming. Only through his teaching will anyone be able to escape such a fate, yet Zarathustra does not give hope to those who do not embrace his teaching.

This speech is the last speech that Zarathustra makes to men before he retreats into his solitudue. It is a warning of the onset of the dark night of nihilism that Zarathustra predicts will overtake the land. This event will ultimately kill God, just as in previous centuries the old gods of the Greeks were killed by the belief in one God. But Zarathustra is not hopeful that anyone who clings to the old virtues and values will survive. At the end of this speech, Zarathustra retreats from the town of The Motley Cow and travels towards his mountain home.

The Homecoming

Zarathustra returns to his cave and to his solitude, a state that he describes as having the qualities of a mother who nurtures her young. The solitude will nurture him and enable the great transcendence that he seeks. Once Zarathustra reaches this silence, however, he realizes that he no longer needs to be silent in the safety of his cave. The restrained silence he practiced in the market prepared him to be able to return to his cave and converse freely. He begins a conversation with solitude, saying that "all being wants to become word... [Here] all becoming wants to learn from me how to speak." He contrasts the freedom of speech that he has found in solitude to the restrictions of speech imposed upon him by humanity.

Zarathustra's speech here is the speech of true philosophy. He describes true being, a state that he could not attain without solitude. The speech of the regular world is simple prattle to Zarathustra. Though philosophers might try to find being in their words, their speech actually masks the true nature of being. As Zarathustra continues to speak in his solitude, new ways of being open up before him.

On the Three Evils

"On the Three Evils" has two parts. In the first part, Zarathustra has a "sweet dream" in which he stands on a mountain top overlooking the world. He finds that the world can be "weighed" and comprehended. Instead of prophesying an impending doom as other dreams have done, this dream confirms the power that Zarathustra has found in his solitude. Zarathustra's dream does not look upon the world "curiously" or "fearfully." In this dream, the whole world is his to comprehend.

When Zarathustra wakes, he undertakes the task of weighing the three most evil things in the world and trying to free them from the constraints of the old teachings of Christianity. These three great evils all have to do with passion: the sensual passion of sex, the passion to rule, and the passion of the self. Zarathustra must relieve these passions of the weight given them by the teachings of modern virtue and Christianity.

Earlier, Zarathustra talked about the benefit of chastity, but here he extols the virtues of sexual pleasure. In sexual pleasure, he says, humanity is moved forward through procreation. The pleasure felt between a man and a woman is symbolic of the greater pleasure that is felt when humanity "marries" Life and the overman is achieved. The passion to rule is the greatest of the passions that Zarathustra must free. What is truly evil about this passion is the necessity of rulers to stoop low to achieve their power. Zarathustra sees how this is similar to his own weakness: his love for humanity. The final passion that Zarathustra must rescue is the passion of the self (selfishness). This is a passion that has been called evil by society. For Zarathustra, however, this passion for the self is the essential thing that takes a person from the depths of life and propels him forward to the overman. By redeeming these three evils and rescuing them from the teachings of morality, Zarathustra seeks to use these former vices for the achievement of the overman. Such a redemption of these evils is necessary if humanity is to progress.

On the Spirit of Gravity

In this chapter, Zarathustra finally faces his greatest enemy: the Spirit of Gravity. This spirit appeared earlier as the dwarf on Zarathustra's shoulder, but his power was not diminished by the riddle of time that Zarathustra gave him. This spirit is the "devil" of all humanity because it binds men and keeps them from ascending to great heights.

Zarathustra begins this speech by recounting the way in which his body opposes the grave. He runs and speaks and writes, which are all actions that make him a being of life. Gravity is a teacher of the grave. It teaches about the grave because it teaches, as Platonism does, that humanity is a soul and that the body is something to be overcome. For gravity, the grave is the essential meaning of life. Man is divided into the body and the soul, and the soul is the greater of those two parts. An ascension to the soul is the necessary state of being that one can hope to accomplish. For Zarathustra, this is a lie and an evil that must be overcome.

This spirit of gravity is Zarathustra's greatest enemy because it centers all humanity around itself, weighing humanity down. In order to defeat such a spirit, Zarathustra must not only banish it. He must replace this spirit and become the new center of gravity for humanity, a center in which humanity is given a new weight in relation to Zarathustra. The weight that the old spirit of gravity gave to humanity was the weight of the self as a citizen. When a man thinks of himself in relation to the society around him, he is reliant upon an outside force to give life an ultimate meaning. Zarathustra knows he must replace this outside force with the truth that all such outside forces are dead. He will stress that the ascension to the overman is the essential state of being for humanity.

On the Old and New Tablets

This chapter, the longest chapter of the book, is a retrospective of Zarathustra's public teachings. Zarathustra reflects on everything that he has done and what it meant. He also revises his teaching, naming his past mistakes and showing a better way to move forward.

As the chapter opens, Zarathustra is sitting among broken tablets that represent the old laws of religion and modernity. He writes upon new tablets that establish the new laws and state of being for humanity. Zarathustra recounts his lessons about the creative power of good and evil. He realizes that he was a fool and a madman when he first began to teach to the crowds. Zarathustra then reflects on his teaching of the overman. He realizes that, while the overman is still the essential state of the new humanity, his teaching is much more centered on the eternal return. The eternal return will be realized when the new humanity returns to the earth to reconstitute it and redeem it from the old ways of teaching. This utopia is now the focus of Zarathustra's teaching.

The rest of the chapter is a summation of the major themes in Zarathustra's teachings. He says that lessons about topics such as envy, wisdom, and selfishness are necessary for the coming age, even if people do not fully comprehend them now. The chapter closes with Zarathustra praying that his will may deliver him to the future that awaits him as a being with great power. Zarathustra hopes that his will can "preserve" him from "small victories." He needs his will to help him achieve the great victory of the eternal return.

The Convalescent

Zarathustra is awakened one morning by a deep abyss rising inside of him. He runs out of his cave, screaming like a madman and frightening the animals around him. He pleads with the abyss to rise up so that he can confront it. After his yelling, he collapses "like a dead man and long [remains] as if dead." His animals stay by his side for seven days and bring him food. When he awakens they speak to him and tell him that "the world awaits you like a garden."

Zarathustra's sickness is representative of all humanity's sickness. It is a universal condition of seeking revenge for being imprisoned in time. When he awakens, it is the animals around him that begin to speak. It is their speech that gives the reader the fullest view of eternal return. The animals speak for "all things." They say that all of the earth is awaiting his return. The fact that the animals begin speaking does not represent a change of being for them. Instead, it represents Zarathustra's new ability to speak to all creation on a natural level. He can understand the animals just as he can understand the rest of nature.

Zarathustra criticizes the animals for having watched him suffer for seven days. Though this criticism seems unfair because the animals helped him during that time, Zarathustra is actually condemning mankind. It is humanity, he says, that needs to be helped by those who are less great. According to Zarathustra, society has created a great barrier. Society deems certain humans as being greater than others, but even these "great humans" are unable to attain the highest positions of power that gods occupy. This has made humanity a cruel race.

Zarathustra's sickness is actually a realization that hierarchy in humanity is still a necessity even in the eternal return. Zarathustra had envisioned a society free from the need of the lower ranks of humanity, but he finds that these lower ranks still exist. He is still consumed with the human desire for revenge, a state he must overcome if he is to will himself to ascend beyond humanity. Zarathustra's great challenge is to will the order of rank in humanity. He must allow the "small man" to exist, but only because he wills it.

On Great Longing

As Zarathustra finishes his song, he falls into a deep stillness where he contemplates the inner thoughts of his being. In this song, he celebrates the gifts that he has given his soul. Zarathustra has now been redeemed; his nature of revenge has subsided and he takes joy in the freedom he has given to his soul.

He prepares his soul now to sing a new song, a song that has not been sung before. He believes that this new song will make him a kind of new god. Zarathustra is now the master and redeemer of his own soul. This is the culmination of redemption that has been building up since the end of part two. Zarathustra has now discovered the will to power and knows the true nature of revenge, a nature that holds mankind captive within time. He has looked into the heavens and has seen that there are no gods there. Only speech constitutes being. Zarathustra knows that there is nothing in the skies that resembles a god. The earth is the only thing that can make mankind sacred. Zarathustra prophecies that he will return as a god through his music after he has attained the highest victory. Zarathustra's prophecy tells of the return of Dionysus, the Greek god. Dionysus will not return to a world of multiple gods as was ancient Greece. Instead, Dionysus will come to rule over a world burnt by the death of the one God and the vacuum of spirituality that is left by that death. Dionysus represents the ascension of mankind to a new kind of godlike state, the eternal return and the state of the overman.

The Other Dance Song

Zarathustra sings this song to himself when he is completely alone in his cave. It is a song of joy because he has been fully redeemed. Zarathustra has finally achieved the redeemed state he has sought ever since he left his disciples. The song is a conversation with Life. Unlike the previous conversation with Life, however, Zarathustra finds that Life is jealous of his great wisdom. Zarathustra calms her jealousy because his wisdom is no longer in opposition to Life. His wisdom now loves life more than anything. As the speech ends, Zarathustra and Life weep together as they gaze "at the green meadow" below them.

In this speech, Zarathustra has learned to love life completely, a state that he was not able to achieve before his enlightenment. For Zarathustra, life has been transformed, not through the force "of the whip," as Life says. It is Zarathustra's force that eventually tames her like a wild animal, and they eventually become lovers. Zarathustra marries Life, and their passion is symbolized by the sexual pleasure that a man and a woman can feel. For Zarathustra, this love of life is the greatest pleasure. The chapter ends when a clock strikes midnight. By the twelfth toll, Zarathustra proclaims that his joy has reached an eternal state.

The Seven Seals (Or: the Yes and Amen Song)

This final chapter of part three echoes the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation (this is the 66th chapter of Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Revelation is the 66th book of the Bible). Each part of this chapter relates the breaking of a seal that brings about a new phase of the new humanity. Similarly, in Revelation, the breaking of the seven seals unleashes an apocalyptic terror upon the earth. Unlike Revelation, the breaking of these seals does not signal death to the earth. Instead, it signals the marriage between Zarathustra, the new god, and Life.

In the first part, Zarathustra is a soothsayer bringing redemption to the earth. The second part recounts Zarathustra's wrath for mankind, but his wrath is assuaged by his love for the woman of eternity. The third part affirms Zarathustra's "creative breath" and affirms his place as a divine being. The fourth part relates Zarathustra's mission as this new divine being; he is to free the nature of things from the constraints of the old world and bring about the truth of the eternal return. The fifth part relates life and nature like an ocean full of possibility to be discovered. The discovery of all that is infinite is Zarathustra's new goal. The sixth and seventh parts culminate with the image of Zarathustra flying over the world and over humanity, an image that has been a part of Zarathustra's ultimate goal since the beginning of the book. For Zarathustra and his new bride, there is neither "up" or "down" or "out" or "back." Zarathustra has fulfilled his destiny and has been wedded to life and eternity.

This final chapter of the book shows Zarathustra's ascension to the highest point of his divinity. He has now achieved the state of the overman. He no longer seeks revenge.

The Honey Sacrifice

Many years pass and Zarathustra is an old man. He is sitting on his mountain and speaking with his animals. Zarathustra has found complete happiness, but he hides his happiness from the animals. Though he is content in his happiness, his still has work ahead of him.

Zarathustra says that his happiness is a lure to others. He compares himself to a fisherman that uses his happiness out as a lure. Zarathustra knows that he must once again descend and encounter mankind again in order to lure them to experience the same kind of happiness.

The Cry of Distress and Conversation with the Kings

The next day, the Soothsayer arrives at Zarathustra's cave. Zarathustra invites the Soothsayer to be a guest at his table, but the Soothsayer tries to make Zarathustra afraid. The Soothsayer tells him that soon others will arrive who will ruin his solitude. He will no longer be able to reflect on his being and his cheerfulness will be gone. The Soothsayer is tempting Zarathustra into despair, a despair that will cause him not to finish the work he has started.

Soon, they hear a cry from someone in need. Zarathustra tells the Soothsayer the man who cried out is the "superior man." Zarathustra is eager to show the Soothsayer that nothing will ruin the happiness in his cave. He leaves the Soothsayer and begins a trek down the mountain to find this superior man.

Zarathustra meets two kings leading a donkey. These kings are bringing the donkey as a gift for the ultimate ruler of all rulers, just as Jesus' disciples had brought a donkey for him to ride into Jerusalem. The kings have tired of dealing with "the rabble" and are seeking an escape from society. They believe Zarathustra will be able to bring this escape to them. Instead, Zarathustra gives them a blasphemous rhyme: the coming of Jesus meant the end of all kings and signaled the true descent of society. With the coming of Christ, the rabble believed they could ascend to the heavens and the kings lost their powers. The kings enjoy Zarathustra's rhyme. They tell him that his enemies still portray him as the devil, but the kings still admire his teachings. They especially admire his teaching on war and they begin a long speech about blood battles and their inherent nobility. The kings are the first in a line of people that Zarathustra meets in his search for the superior man. Many of these chapters deal with the nature of politics and the rule of "the mob." The kings, as well as the other people Zarathustra meets, are on their way to a "donkey festival" to meet this new ruler. These kings are tired of the rule of the mob and they eagerly await this new ruler.

The Leech and The Magician

In "The Leech," Zarathustra stumbles upon a man and the man screams out in pain. Zarathustra tries to calm him with a parable, but the parable is actually meant to insult the man. The man takes offense at Zarathustra's parable and he challenges him. Zarathustra sees that the man is bleeding; he has been bitten by a beast. Zarathustra takes pity on the man and invites him to rest in his cave. The man is grateful and identifies himself as "the conscience of spirit." The man tells Zarathustra that he actually cut himself and allowed leeches to feed on him in order to find Zarathustra and become one with his teaching.

The man represents the scientific and scholarly spirit, knowledge without charm or spirit. This man only sees value in the small part of the world that is knowable, and he seeks Zarathustra's knowledge in order to somehow increase his own knowledge and overcome the human intuition to fear. Zarathustra insults the man, but he still invites the man to his cave to dine and discuss.

Zarathustra then runs into an old rival, the Old Sorcerer. This man had proclaimed himself to be the greatest man of his age. Zarathustra first thinks this is the superior man who he heard cry out, but he is again mistaken. The man is thrashing around like a madman and Zarathustra yells at him to get him to stop. The Sorcerer then begins to sing a series of songs to Zarathustra that echo Zarathustra's own teachings. The Sorcerer proclaims that he has been given the gift of the gods and has attained divinity. The Sorcerer's song speaks of the coming of Dionysus.

Zarathustra is furious at this Sorcerer and begins to beat him with his staff. The Sorcerer begs him to stop and flatters Zarathustra, telling him that he is the "saint of knowledge." Eventually, Zarathustra relents and invites him to his cave as well.

The Sorcerer represents the long battle between poetry and philosophy. The Sorcerer, representing the poet, relays that he himself has found a way to become divine. Zarathustra calls him a deceiver, saying that poetry is the force that leads men to create other gods. The Sorcerer eventually breaks down, admitting that it is Zarathustra he seeks. The Sorcerer asks Zarathustra to take pity on him, and Zarathustra invites another person to his cave for conversation.

Retired, The Ugliest Human Being, and The Voluntary Beggar

When Zarathustra leaves the magician, he sees another man dressed in black, and is angry at finding another follower of the dark arts. This man is not a sorcerer; he is the last Pope to have seen God before God's death. Zarathustra wants to know whether "pity choked [God] to death." The Pope does not have an answer but admits that, for him, God has also died. Zarathustra gives him permission to speak ill of God now that he had died, and the Pope is glad to be able to do so. The Pope tells Zarathustra that God was subjected to the rule of man. The Pope recognizes in Zarathustra the makings of another kind of god, one that will take him "beyond good and evil." As the chapter closes, the Pope lays his hands on Zarathustra in a kind of blessing ceremony.

The next man that Zarathustra meets, the ugliest human being, again gives Zarathustra an explanation for the death of God. The ugliest man says to Zarathustra that he himself is the one who murdered God because he could not stand the idea of a God who saw him and pitied him. Zarathustra is also moved to pity, but unlike God, Zarathustra attempts to move beyond pity to a hardness of heart. The ugliest man tries to keep Zarathustra from escaping from him by telling him that he is already rich even though he is ugly. He is rich with ugliness, rich with what is terrible. It is the ugliest man who organized the "donkey festival" in order to comfort himself.

As Zarathustra continues to walk, he finds the voluntary beggar. When Zarathustra finds him, he is speaking to a group of cows. Zarathustra demands to know what the man seeks to gain by speaking to these cows. The man answers, "the same thing you seek...happiness on earth." The man is trying to learn the secret of happiness from the cows, for, as he says, "unless we are converted and become as cows, we will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." When Zarathustra makes the man explain himself, he learns that the man is the voluntary beggar, the man who became sick of his wealth and threw it all away. The man became so sick of society and culture that he decided to go to the animals to find happiness.

Though Zarathustra finds this man's trust in animals to be foolish, the beggar still has nobility because he is attempting to overcome the structures of the world. By voluntarily refusing wealth and by seeking his redemption not in religion but in nature, he joins Zarathustra as a seeker of the true way to the eternal return.

The Shadow and At Noon

Zarathustra has become annoyed at the proliferation of people on his mountain and wonders where his solitude has gone. There is one more individual that Zarathustra has left to meet: his own shadow. His shadow has followed Zarathustra through each step of his teaching. His shadow has found that it has become a nihilist, finding nothing to be true anymore. Zarathustra is upset to find that the one who is possibly the closest to his teaching and to himself has become a nihilist. For now, however, there is nothing that he can say to the shadow to refute such an idea.

The shadow is the representation of one of the consequences of Zarathustra's teaching, though it is not the result that Zarathustra wants. The shadow represents the criticisms of Zarathustra's enemies who say his teaching is nothing but a bitter refutation of God, replacing belief with wicked nihilism. Zarathustra warns the shadow not to cut his journey short. This would result in a narrow-minded worldview, something just as harmful as belief in God and Christianity.

Zarathustra has met the final person he will meet this day, and after wandering in solitude, he stops by a tree and rests beside it. He lies down, and as he begins to fall asleep, he begins to speak to his own heart. Zarathustra recounts the many miles and lands he has traversed to come to his current blissful happiness. His language shows his love of nature and all that is around him. Zarathustra is in an utter state of bliss. When he awakens, he finds that the sun is still overhead, which means that he has not slept very long.

This respite in the narrative of part four is a Dionysian psalm about Zarathustra's happiness. It contains imagery of divinity and an eternity of bliss. Zarathustra is tempted to remain at rest, to selfishly enjoy his happiness, a result not entirely antithetical to his own teaching. He also knows that his work is only half completed, for he set out that morning to find those who were seeking him. Though he found those individuals, he has not yet converted them to his true teaching, so his work is still ahead of him.

The Welcome and The Last Supper

In the late afternoon, Zarathustra returns to his cave. As he approaches, he once again hears the cry of distress. This time, the cry comes from multiple voices in his cave. As he enters the cave, he sees all of the characters from the day gathered there. The ugliest human has draped himself in purple sash because "he [loves] to disguise himself and act beautiful." Zarathustra is disappointed to realize that the cry of the higher man was actually the collective cry of all these characters. One of the kings tries to explain that there will be another higher man coming after them, but Zarathustra rebuffs the king, telling him that they are not the ones for which he has been waiting. Zarathustra begins a speech in which he imagines his true "children" and their return to him. He imagines that these children have become like "lions" in the world.

The Soothsayer interrupts Zarathustra's speech by saying that preparations for supper need to be started. The kings offer their wine, but several of the guests, including Zarathustra, only want water. The last supper begins with Zarathustra quoting Jesus, saying "man does not live by bread alone." Instead, Zarathustra offers two sacrificial lambs for dinner. The voluntary beggar refuses the food for his customary pittance.

In these two speeches, Zarathustra discovers that the people he met during the day were really the ones he heard crying out in distress. This disappoints him because he imagined that the higher man would be of a purer nature than these men are. The last supper that they all enjoy is a parody of the biblical last supper of Jesus and his disciples. Zarathustra brings Passover lambs, but he continues to insult his guests in a joking manner, calling one of the kings an "ass."

On the Higher Man, The Song of Melancholy, On Science, and Among Daughters of the Desert

After the supper, Zarathustra begins a long speech about the higher man. He recounts his folly from the prologue, explaining how he gave his message to the wrong people. Zarathustra tells these men to temper their search because, in reality, the highest state that they seek is unavailable to them. Zarathustra does not want these men's failures to give his own teaching a bad name. He warns them not to be "lastlings," the measure of what a true follower of Zarathustra should be. He knows that these men will only find failure in their search, so he implores them to moderate their expectations.

Zarathustra longs to be with his animals and leaves the cave to find them. When he leaves, the Sorcerer tells the men in the cave that he is being possessed by a devil, the true enemy of Zarathustra. The Sorcerer, however, is cunningly attempting to lead the higher men astray from Zarathustra's teaching, just as he tried to lead Zarathustra astray when he sang his earlier Dionysian song. The Sorcerer begins to claim that Zarathustra is "only a poet," thereby confusing the men gathered because they respect Zarathustra's teaching so much. By doing this, the Sorcerer is elevating himself to Zarathustra's level in an effort to gain the glory of his teaching for himself. The first part of the Sorcerer's song proclaims that night is coming to all things, even Zarathustra and his teaching. The song laments that, in reality, there is no true teaching. The man of science and scholarship comes to Zarathustra's defense, however, saying that Zarathustra's teaching, like the pursuit of science, makes all things knowable.

Both of these interpretations and teachings are false, and Zarathustra's shadow knows this. He is too weak to combat the teachings, however, and a melancholy falls over the group. Instead, he begins to sing a mocking song about a "good European" in a desert surrounded by "maidens of Paradise." The song mocks European moral superiority and skepticism. As the song ends, the cave is filled with laughter.

The Awakening and The Ass Festival

As evening falls, Zarathustra hears laughing from inside the cave. He tries to comfort himself by saying that the day must be a success if they are laughing even after Zarathustra explains how they are not the higher men that he truly seeks. He shrugs off their laughter as their own way of trying to ascend to the heights of his teaching. Soon, however, the laughter ceases and a quiet comes over the cave. Zarathustra sneaks in to see what they are doing, and to his surprise, he finds them all on their knees praying. He thinks they have all gone mad, but in listening to their prayer, he realizes that they are really praying to the donkey. It is the start of the Ass Festival.

Zarathustra interrupts the praying and demands to know what his guests are doing, believing that they have gone mad. They tell him that the old God lives again, that the ugliest human being brought him back. They are worshiping the donkey as the form of God, a form that they can all worship. Zarathustra mocks them and berates them for their foolishness. He tells them that even though they need to be children to enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven is not the kingdom for which they should strive. The kingdom for which they should strive is the "kingdom of the earth."

The Festival of the Ass is a festival that mocks modern Christianity. Christian worship has lost all its power, so the higher men might as well worship God in the form of a donkey. This at least gives them something to believe, though they know it is stupid. This is perhaps the greatest insight into God-is-dead theology: in order to continue the murder of God, humanity must mock the old forms of worship. This kills the gravity that once held men to the ground in a carnivalesque manner by taking the power from such rituals.

The Sleepwalker Song and The Sign

Zarathustra and the higher men leave the cave close to midnight. The ugliest human tells Zarathustra that he has begun to appreciate life. As the bell tolls midnight, Zarathustra becomes the ultimate teacher for these men and relates the song of the sleepwalker. In the song, mankind is called to awaken for the task at hand. The bell that tolls midnight represents the will of the past, for even the dead cry out for the past to be willed. Midnight makes these men lords of the earth. As the bell finishes tolling, Zarathustra points these men toward another god, the god of Dionysus, who makes life eternal and sweet. Thus, Zarathustra has taught these higher men the true nature of the eternal return.

The final chapter of the book begins as the prologue did. When Zarathustra awakens in the morning he is greeted by the higher men, who are still happy from the night before. Zarathustra knows that these higher men are not his true children, and he understands that his task has not been completed. Zarathustra realizes that, even though he had pity on these higher men, he can now put his sin behind him. Now he truly knows the way to teach such men. As the book ends, Zarathustra leaves his cave "like a morning sun that emerges from a dark mountain."

Pity is the great sin that Zarathustra knows people must overcome if they are to understand his teaching of the overman, but he realizes that he feels pity for each of these higher men. Zarathustra, reflecting on the previous day, understands that he can now put his sin of pity behind him and focus on the work at hand. Thus, Zarathustra's speaking can continue in the world.

• Biography of Friedrich Nietzsche
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