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Thus Spake ZarathustraIdeasLibrary
First Part · XV. The Thousand and One Goals

Greek, Persian, and other tables of surmounting

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“Always shalt thou be the foremost and prominent above others: no one shall thy jealous soul love, except a friend”—that made the soul of a Greek thrill: thereby went he his way to greatness.

“To speak truth, and be skilful with bow and arrow”—so seemed it alike pleasing and hard to the people from whom cometh my name—the name which is alike pleasing and hard to me.

“To honour father and mother, and from the root of the soul to do their will”—this table of surmounting hung another people over them, and became powerful and permanent thereby.

“To have fidelity, and for the sake of fidelity to risk honour and blood, even in evil and dangerous courses”—teaching itself so, another people mastered itself, and thus mastering itself, became pregnant and heavy with great hopes.

Four tables are quoted: the Greek striving to be foremost, the Persian truth-telling and archery (the people of Zarathustra's name), honouring parents, and fidelity even in evil courses.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

All morality is expediencyH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation

Mencken argues, citing Zarathustra's account of the tables of many peoples, that every moral code is a changing expression of a people's expediency and will to power, that a people's god merely reflects its current ideas, and that the Ten Commandments are no more immutable than acts of Parliament.

All morality is expediencyH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation

Mencken argues, citing Zarathustra's account of the tables of many peoples, that every moral code is a changing expression of a people's expediency and will to power, that a people's god merely reflects its current ideas, and that the Ten Commandments are no more immutable than acts of Parliament.

Morality as means to power; modern goallessnessAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici says that 'The Thousand and One Goals' opens Zarathustra's doctrine of moral relativity, declaring all morality a means to power, with verses on the Greeks, Persians, Jews and Germans, and that its close diagnoses the root of modern nihilism: man has no goal.