Key Arguments

• Gold’s value is allegorical: it is prized because it ‘always bestows itself,’ modeling the virtue that gives rather than takes.
• The look of the bestower ‘gold-like shines’ and reconciles opposites (‘makes peace between moon and sun’), suggesting creative, ordering power.
• The highest virtue is rare (‘uncommon’) and not instrumentally useful; its worth lies in overabundant giving rather than utility.

Source Quotes

Zarathustra was delighted with the staff and leaned upon it; then he spoke thus to his disciples. ‘Tell me now: how did gold assume the highest value? Because it is uncommon and of no use and luminous and mild in its lustre; it always bestows itself. ‘Only as an allegory of the highest virtue did gold assume the highest value.

Because it is uncommon and of no use and luminous and mild in its lustre; it always bestows itself. ‘Only as an allegory of the highest virtue did gold assume the highest value. Gold-like shines the glance of the one who bestows.

The gleam of gold makes peace between moon and sun. ‘Uncommon is the highest virtue and of no use, luminous it is and mild in its lustre: a bestowing virtue is the highest virtue. ‘Verily, I divine you well, my disciples: you are striving, as I am, for the bestowing virtue.

Key Concepts

• ‘Tell me now: how did gold assume the highest value? Because it is uncommon and of no use and luminous and mild in its lustre; it always bestows itself.
• ‘Only as an allegory of the highest virtue did gold assume the highest value.
• ‘Uncommon is the highest virtue and of no use, luminous it is and mild in its lustre: a bestowing virtue is the highest virtue.

Context

Zarathustra, at a crossroads leaving ‘The Motley Cow,’ receives a golden-handled staff with a serpent around the sun and uses gold as an allegory to define the highest virtue.

Perspectives

Nietzsche

Affirms the revaluation: true virtue is aristocratic generosity (noble bestowal), beyond utility and herd morality; gold serves as a symbolic transvaluation of value toward creative giving.

Zarathustra

Instructs disciples to orient themselves to bestowal rather than possession; the gold metaphor models the radiance, mildness, and rarity of the virtue he demands.