character The murderer of God, who could not bear the witness who saw everything; cannot bear pity.
“Zarathustra! Zarathustra! Read my riddle! Say, say! WHAT IS THE REVENGE ON THE WITNESS? I entice thee back; here is smooth ice! See to it, see to it, that thy pride doth not here break its legs! Thou thinkest thyself…
The voice challenges Zarathustra to read its riddle. Pity fells him, but he rises and says the man is the murderer of God, who took revenge on the witness who beheld him.
Read in the book →“I know thee well,” said he, with a brazen voice, “THOU ART THE MURDERER OF GOD! Let me go.
Zarathustra identifies the creature and tries to leave.
Read in the book →Thus spake Zarathustra and was about to go; but the nondescript grasped at a corner of his garment and began anew to gurgle and seek for words. “Stay,” said he at last— —“Stay! Do not pass by! I have divined what axe it…
He holds Zarathustra back and begs to be his refuge from persecution by pity. He says Zarathustra's silent blush showed that he knew him. He is too rich in ugliness to be a beggar for alms.
Read in the book →Beyond all these do I look, as a dog looketh over the backs of thronging flocks of sheep. They are petty, good-wooled, good-willed, grey people. As the heron looketh contemptuously at shallow pools, with backward-bent…
He looks over the petty people as a dog looks over sheep. He blames their pity-preaching saint, who said 'I am the truth', and credits Zarathustra with answering him with a threefold Nay.
Read in the book →Thou thyself, however,—warn thyself also against THY pity! For many are on their way to thee, many suffering, doubting, despairing, drowning, freezing ones— I warn thee also against myself. Thou hast read my best, my…
He warns Zarathustra against his own pity for the many who are coming to him. He explains that the prying, pitying God who saw everything, man included, had to die.
Read in the book →The God who beheld everything, AND ALSO MAN: that God had to die! Man cannot ENDURE it that such a witness should live.”
The ugliest man's summary of why God was killed.
Read in the book →Thus spake the ugliest man. Zarathustra however got up, and prepared to go on: for he felt frozen to the very bowels. “Thou nondescript,” said he, “thou warnedst me against thy path. As thanks for it I praise mine to…
Frozen to the bowels, Zarathustra thanks the man by praising his own path. He sends him to the cave and to the proudest and wisest animals, then walks on thoughtful and slow.
Read in the book →It was late in the afternoon only when Zarathustra, after long useless searching and strolling about, again came home to his cave. When, however, he stood over against it, not more than twenty paces therefrom, the thing…
Returning home, Zarathustra hears the cry of distress again, this time from his own cave. He finds all the men he met that day sitting there, and greets them with courteous curiosity.
Read in the book →All on a sudden however, Zarathustra’s ear was frightened: for the cave which had hitherto been full of noise and laughter, became all at once still as death;—his nose, however, smelt a sweet-scented vapour and…
The cave falls silent and fills with incense. Zarathustra looks in and finds all the higher men kneeling and praying to the ass, and the ugliest man begins a litany.
Read in the book →Amen! And glory and honour and wisdom and thanks and praise and strength be to our God, from everlasting to everlasting! —The ass, however, here brayed YE-A. He carrieth our burdens, he hath taken upon him the form of a…
The ugliest man chants a litany praising the ass as a patient, silent, burden-bearing God beyond good and evil. After each verse the ass brays 'YE-A'.
Read in the book →—“And thou thyself, finally,” said Zarathustra, and turned towards the ugliest man, who still lay on the ground stretching up his arm to the ass (for he gave it wine to drink). “Say, thou nondescript, what hast thou…
Zarathustra asks the transformed ugliest man why he awakened God. The ugliest man calls Zarathustra a rogue and a dangerous saint, and recalls that he learned from him that the thorough killer laughs.
Read in the book →Meanwhile one after another had gone out into the open air, and into the cool, thoughtful night; Zarathustra himself, however, led the ugliest man by the hand, that he might show him his night-world, and the great round…
Outside in the night, the ugliest man asks whether they too would say 'Once more' to death for Zarathustra's sake. The higher men rush to honour Zarathustra, and the soothsayer dances.
Read in the book →‘Was THAT—life?’ will I say unto death.
The ugliest man says he would greet death with 'Well! Once more!'
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?