scene The vision of the shepherd who bites off the serpent's head and laughs a laughter no man has yet laughed.
And verily, what I saw, the like had I never seen. A young shepherd did I see, writhing, choking, quivering, with distorted countenance, and with a heavy black serpent hanging out of his mouth. Had I ever seen so much…
Zarathustra finds a young shepherd choking with a heavy black serpent fastened in his throat. Unable to pull it out, he cries 'Bite! Bite! Its head off!'
Read in the book →Ye daring ones around me! Ye venturers and adventurers, and whoever of you have embarked with cunning sails on unexplored seas! Ye enigma-enjoyers! Solve unto me the enigma that I then beheld, interpret unto me the…
Zarathustra asks the sailors to interpret the vision: who is the shepherd, and who must come some day? The shepherd bites as bidden and spits the serpent's head far away.
Read in the book →No longer shepherd, no longer man—a transfigured being, a light-surrounded being, that LAUGHED! Never on earth laughed a man as HE laughed! O my brethren, I heard a laughter which was no human laughter,—and now gnaweth…
The shepherd springs up, light-surrounded, laughing as no man has ever laughed. Zarathustra is left with an unquenchable longing for that laughter.
Read in the book →This is an experiment in interactive reading, and in using AI to help you grow. Thus Spake Zarathustra is notoriously difficult for a modern reader; yet taken as a set of mental exercises, it is guaranteed to transform your thinking by the time you reach the end. Along the way you will have help from the companion, who is always beside the book.
Do you accept the challenge?