Key Arguments

• He insists the priestly order still exists: “he dwells still, the old idol-priest,” showing the old is not yet overcome.
• He portrays covert domination: “secret sacrificial tables,” indicating hidden mechanisms of appropriation and harm.
• He characterizes the consumption as self-serving: the priest “roasts what is best in us for his own feast,” not for any higher purpose, revealing exploitation.

Source Quotes

Our best is yet young: that excites old gums. Our flesh is tender, our fleece is only a lamb’s fleece:– how could we fail to excite old idol-priests! he dwells still, the old idol-priest, who roasts what is best in us for his own feast. Ah, my brothers, how could firstlings fail to be sacrifices!

But just now are we firstlings. We all are bleeding on secret sacrificial tables, we all are burning and roasting to the honour of old idol-statues. Our best is yet young: that excites old gums.

Key Concepts

• he dwells still, the old idol-priest, who roasts what is best in us for his own feast.
• We all are bleeding on secret sacrificial tables

Context

Within the sacrificial metaphor, Zarathustra singles out the enduring priestly figure as the agent of exploitation that turns the creators’ best into fuel for the old idols.

Perspectives

Nietzsche

Matches the genealogy of priestly ressentiment: priests live off the strength of the higher, transmuting it into their ritual power; the secrecy underscores guilt-economies.

Zarathustra

Beware the lingering idol-priest: he will make a feast of your best. Yet our path remains—to spend ourselves despite him.