Key Arguments

• He states explicitly he will not be a herdsman nor a digger of graves, severing from two prior modes: shepherding and corpse-bearing.
• He declares he will no longer speak with the people and that his last interlocutor was a dead man, finalizing the break with mass pedagogy.
• He identifies his new audience as ‘the solitaries’ and ‘the dualitaries’ and promises to reveal to them uplifting symbols and paths (‘the rainbow’ and ‘stairways to the Overhuman’).
• He frames his movement as toward his goal and over the hesitant, turning his own going into an exemplary ‘going-under’ that may catalyze others.

Source Quotes

Between dawn of morning and dawn of morning a new truth has come to me. ‘No herdsman shall I be, nor digger of graves. With the people I will not talk even one more time; for the last time I have spoken to a dead man. ‘With the creators, the harvesters, the celebrants will I make company: the rainbow will I show them and all the stairways to the Overhuman.

With the people I will not talk even one more time; for the last time I have spoken to a dead man. ‘With the creators, the harvesters, the celebrants will I make company: the rainbow will I show them and all the stairways to the Overhuman. ‘To the solitaries shall I sing my song and to the dualitaries; and whoever yet has ears for the unheard-of, his heart will I make heavy with my happiness.

‘With the creators, the harvesters, the celebrants will I make company: the rainbow will I show them and all the stairways to the Overhuman. ‘To the solitaries shall I sing my song and to the dualitaries; and whoever yet has ears for the unheard-of, his heart will I make heavy with my happiness. ‘To my goal will I go, I walk my walk; over those who hesitate and are dilatory I shall leap away.

‘To the solitaries shall I sing my song and to the dualitaries; and whoever yet has ears for the unheard-of, his heart will I make heavy with my happiness. ‘To my goal will I go, I walk my walk; over those who hesitate and are dilatory I shall leap away. Thus may my going be their going-under!’

Key Concepts

• ‘No herdsman shall I be, nor digger of graves. With the people I will not talk even one more time; for the last time I have spoken to a dead man.
• ‘With the creators, the harvesters, the celebrants will I make company: the rainbow will I show them and all the stairways to the Overhuman.
• ‘To the solitaries shall I sing my song and to the dualitaries; and whoever yet has ears for the unheard-of, his heart will I make heavy with my happiness.
• ‘To my goal will I go, I walk my walk; over those who hesitate and are dilatory I shall leap away. Thus may my going be their going-under!’

Context

In closing the monologue to his heart, Zarathustra names and blesses his future addressees and symbols, marking a pedagogical and pastoral renunciation.

Perspectives

Nietzsche

Endorses pedagogical aristocratism: speak to rare receptive types; the ‘rainbow’ and ‘stairways’ signify transformative visions and graded ascents to the Overhuman.

Zarathustra

Commits to a path with and for select spirits; his own decisive stride will serve as a spur, even a stumbling-block, that precipitates others’ necessary ‘going-under.’