Second Part · XLI. The Soothsayer

Zarathustra's grief, fast and long sleep

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Verily, said he unto his disciples, a little while, and there cometh the long twilight. Alas, how shall I preserve my light through it!

That it may not smother in this sorrowfulness! To remoter worlds shall it be a light, and also to remotest nights!

Thus did Zarathustra go about grieved in his heart, and for three days he did not take any meat or drink: he had no rest, and lost his speech. At last it came to pass that he fell into a deep sleep. His disciples, however, sat around him in long night-watches, and waited anxiously to see if he would awake, and speak again, and recover from his affliction.

And this is the discourse that Zarathustra spake when he awoke; his voice, however, came unto his disciples as from afar:

Zarathustra fears the long twilight will smother his light. For three days he neither eats, drinks nor speaks, then sleeps while his disciples keep watch. He wakes and speaks as if from afar.

Sickness, convalescence and the great disgustZarathustra is sickened by the prophecy; he fasts, loses his speech and falls into a deep sleep, a first sickness before the later ones.
SolitudeHe withdraws into silence and sleep, away even from his watching disciples.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

Anthony M. Ludovici, Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra (1909)

The soothsayer is SchopenhauerAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici identifies the soothsayer with Schopenhauer, whom Nietzsche once followed, and says Nietzsche overcame pessimism by finding an object in existence, the raising of society to a higher level.