Second Part · XXVI. The Priests

Greater than the Saviours; never yet a Superman

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Sultry heart and cold head; where these meet, there ariseth the blusterer, the “Saviour.”

Greater ones, verily, have there been, and higher-born ones, than those whom the people call Saviours, those rapturous blusterers!

And by still greater ones than any of the Saviours must ye be saved, my brethren, if ye would find the way to freedom!

Never yet hath there been a Superman. Naked have I seen both of them, the greatest man and the smallest man:—

All-too-similar are they still to each other. Verily, even the greatest found I—all-too-human!—

Zarathustra calls the Saviour a blusterer where a sultry heart meets a cold head. He says greater ones have been, and that his brethren must be saved by still greater ones. He has seen the greatest and the smallest man naked and found them alike.

The Superman (Übermensch)No Superman has yet existed: even the greatest man is all-too-human.
Will, freedom and the 'I will'Freedom requires being saved by greater ones than the Saviours.
Christianity, priests and the need to worshipTreats the 'Saviour' as a type, the blusterer with a sultry heart and cold head, and asks for greater ones than any Saviour.

Commentary on this passage

What the critics said

Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, Introduction to Thus Spake Zarathustra (1905) — Partisan source: the author shaped Nietzsche's posthumous reputation and is not a reliable interpreter.

The Superman as an early ideal of great individualsElisabeth Förster-Nietzsche · Introduction to Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1905interpretation

Förster-Nietzsche argues that the Superman ideal was already present in Nietzsche's writings of 1873–75 as the hope of rearing great individuals, the youthful view that mankind's object lies in its highest specimens; in Zarathustra this ideal is placed in the future and veiled in becoming, beyond even the Saviour, since 'never yet hath there been a Superman'.