Key Arguments

• The mirror reveals not self but a diabolical caricature, signifying public misrecognition of his teaching.
• Semantic inversion—“weeds would be called wheat”—indicates a value-confusion where false versions of his doctrine are mistaken for the true.
• Friends’ shame signals the social and affective damage of misinterpretation, motivating his return to seek the lost.

Source Quotes

One morning, however, he awoke well before dawn of morning, lay on his pallet for a long time in thought, and spoke at last to his heart: ‘Why was I so frightened in my dream that I awoke? Did a child not come to me carrying a mirror? ‘ “O Zarathustra”–the child said to me–“Look at yourself in the mirror!” ‘But when I looked in the mirror I cried out, and my heart was shaken: for it was not myself that I saw there, but a Devil’s grimace and mocking laughter.

Did a child not come to me carrying a mirror? ‘ “O Zarathustra”–the child said to me–“Look at yourself in the mirror!” ‘But when I looked in the mirror I cried out, and my heart was shaken: for it was not myself that I saw there, but a Devil’s grimace and mocking laughter. ‘Verily, all too well do I understand the dream’s omen and admonition: my is in danger, and weeds would be called wheat!

‘But when I looked in the mirror I cried out, and my heart was shaken: for it was not myself that I saw there, but a Devil’s grimace and mocking laughter. ‘Verily, all too well do I understand the dream’s omen and admonition: my is in danger, and weeds would be called wheat! ‘My enemies have grown powerful and have distorted the image of my teaching, such that my dearest ones must be ashamed of the gifts I have given them.

‘Verily, all too well do I understand the dream’s omen and admonition: my is in danger, and weeds would be called wheat! ‘My enemies have grown powerful and have distorted the image of my teaching, such that my dearest ones must be ashamed of the gifts I have given them. ‘My friends are lost to me; the hour has come for me to seek my lost ones!’– With these words Zarathustra sprang up, but not like one who is anxious and gasps for air, but rather like a seer and singer who is overtaken by the spirit.

‘My enemies have grown powerful and have distorted the image of my teaching, such that my dearest ones must be ashamed of the gifts I have given them. ‘My friends are lost to me; the hour has come for me to seek my lost ones!’– With these words Zarathustra sprang up, but not like one who is anxious and gasps for air, but rather like a seer and singer who is overtaken by the spirit. Amazed, his eagle and his serpent looked upon him: for like dawn of morning an imminent happiness lay upon his countenance.

Key Concepts

• Did a child not come to me carrying a mirror?
• it was not myself that I saw there, but a Devil’s grimace and mocking laughter.
• my is in danger, and weeds would be called wheat!
• my enemies have grown powerful and have distorted the image of my teaching
• my dearest ones must be ashamed of the gifts I have given them.
• My friends are lost to me; the hour has come for me to seek my lost ones!

Context

Zarathustra recounts an alarming dream before dawn that he interprets as a prophetic admonition to re-enter the human world to correct distortions.

Perspectives

Nietzsche

Identifies a critique of reception: doctrines are inevitably falsified by herd misunderstanding; the image of the mirror and ‘Devil’s grimace’ dramatizes ressentiment’s caricature of the higher type.

Zarathustra

Reads the omen as a call to action: he must search for his friends and rectify the inversion where his teaching’s weeds are mistaken for wheat.