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# Prologue
- URL: https://www.rebindclassics.com/thus-spoke-zarathustra-prologue/
- Published: 2026-01-02T00:01:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:28:02.000Z
- Description: Martin walks through the prologue's ideas, the death of God, the Übermensch and the last man, and tests the first with a question about climate change.
- Author: Andrew Wessels
- Tags: Clancy Martin on Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #video

Clancy Martin calls the prologue to Friedrich Nietzsche's *Thus Spoke Zarathustra* deceptively easy: you can read it like a light short story and miss that most of Nietzsche's major themes are already here. He explains the name Zarathustra, borrowed from the Persian prophet who first saw good and evil as the wheel in the working of things, and reads the passage in *Ecce Homo* where Nietzsche says the man who created morality must be the first to expose it.

The test he gives his students is the best moment. Imagine a worldwide gathering to pray away climate change, then a headline saying scientists in Sweden, Japan and Australia have reversed it. Which do you believe? That, Martin says, is the death of God: we're no longer building cathedrals; our blood and treasure go to science and capitalism. Then come the Übermensch, the last man who wants only comfort and safety, and the human spirit as a bowstring stretched so tight it can shoot for the furthest goals, or snap.

## Transcript

So let's talk about the prologue. The prologue is among the most famous sections of the book, and frequently it's the only section of the book that is taught when professors of philosophy introduce the text. It's deceptively easy to read. One can read it quickly, like a light short story, and not notice that most of the major themes that will concern Nietzsche in the rest of the book, and indeed in his entire philosophical literature, are introduced here in the prologue. He also introduces the hero of the book, Zarathustra, named after the Iranian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster, because Nietzsche thinks of Zoroaster as representing the great moral duality of good and evil, and the view that ultimately good will triumph over evil. It is this duality of good and evil that Nietzsche spends his intellectual life trying to overcome.

Zarathustra is a prophet, and he's gone into the mountains to live in solitude, as prophets tend to do, and at last he's decided that he has an obligation to return to human beings and teach them what he's learned. He calls this his going under, or going below. The term he uses, Untergehen, is the same as the German word for sunset, and it carries that ancient connotation of the sun going down to the underworld at night before returning again to the light of day, and the process of his going under to teach other human beings is what we will read about in the book to come.

In his 1888 autobiography, Nietzsche offers an explanation of why he chose the name Zarathustra. Quote: "People have never asked me, as they should have done, what the name Zarathustra precisely meant in my mouth, in the mouth of the first immoralist; for that which distinguishes the Persian from all others in the past is the very fact that he was the exact reverse of an immoralist. Zarathustra was the first to see in the struggle between good and evil the essential wheel in the working of things. The translation of morality into the realm of metaphysics, as force, cause, end in itself, is his work.

"But the very question suggests its own answer. Zarathustra created this most portentous of all errors, morality; therefore, he must be the first to expose it, not only because he has had longer and greater experience of the subject than any other thinker. All history is indeed the experimental refutation of the theory of the so-called moral order of things.

"But because of the more important fact that Zarathustra was the most truthful of thinkers. In his teaching alone is truthfulness upheld as the highest virtue, that is to say, as the reverse of the cowardice of the idealist who takes to his heels at the sight of reality. Zarathustra has more pluck in his body than all other thinkers put together. To tell the truth and to aim straight, that is the first Persian virtue. Have I made myself clear? The overcoming of morality by itself through truthfulness, the moralist's overcoming of himself in his opposite, in me. That is what the name Zarathustra means in my mouth."

Now, what are the major themes of the book and Zarathustra's key ideas? First and most obviously, the death of God. Zarathustra is astounded when he meets a saint in the forest, with whom he has a very friendly conversation, who has not yet heard the news that God is dead.

We'll be talking about this idea and its ramifications throughout the book, but the heart of the notion is that already by the 19th century, in Europe and elsewhere, culturally speaking, the notion of God had lost its power. When I introduced this idea to my students, many of whom were raised and are believers in one of the Abrahamic religions, I often put it this way. Consider climate change. If you heard that there is going to be a great gathering of people around the globe to pray to God to cool the planet, you'd be enthusiastic. You would probably want to join in the prayer, but in your heart, would you believe that this was going to solve the problem?

Now, consider that every major newspaper in the world suddenly announces that a team of scientists in Sweden, Japan, and Australia have invented a new technology that will reverse climate change in 10 years or less. Now, how would you feel? The truth is, Nietzsche insists, that although we may profess as individuals to believe in God, we are no longer building any Notre Dame cathedrals or Meccas. All of our great investments of blood and treasure these days are in science or capitalism.

Second, and perhaps most famously, Zarathustra here introduces the idea of the Übermensch, sometimes translated as Overman or Superman, probably best translated as superhuman. Because the translation of the word has become fraught with cultural misinterpretation, I'm going to leave it untranslated for the purpose of our discussion. Zarathustra describes himself as the herald of the Übermensch, a higher type of human being yet to come, who's freed from the constraints of our old dogmatism about religion, morality, and value generally. The Übermensch is the one who creates new values, who reveals to us new heights which humanity can strive for and achieve. Most commonly, when providing examples in other texts of what an Übermensch might look like, Nietzsche refers to great artists, but we'll have a lot to ask and to say about the Übermensch as we proceed.

Also, third, here in the prologue Zarathustra teaches us about what he calls the last man. This is the opposite of the Übermensch, the one who, rather than creating value, embraces nihilism and materialism and no longer really believes in value at all. The last man is the greatest threat to human civilization, Zarathustra argues, now that God is no longer the secure anchor for our value systems. This kind of human only believes in material comfort, security, and avoiding a painful life. The last man keeps his head low, huddles with others, and tries to find whatever modest pleasure he can in this dangerous world of ours, which he fears.

Two more key themes of the book are the ideas of the eternal return and the will to power, both of which we'll discuss in greater detail as we make our way through the work. Zarathustra has come down from the mountain to help humanity, to help them in avoiding becoming nihilistic last men, and to help prepare the way for a greater future for humanity, the possibility of the Übermensch. He elsewhere says that the death of God has stretched the human spirit so tight, like a string on a great bow, that we can now shoot for the furthest goals, or snap. Zarathustra wants to help humanity shoot the arrow of its spirit for the loftiest possible aspirations.