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Posted by Eve --Previous Message--
on 4/18/2007, 5:20 pm, in reply to "Zarathustra Prologue 1"
64.172.174.X
what if the serpent was 'eternal return' ?
: WHEN Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left
: his home and the lake of his home, and went
: into the mountains. There he enjoyed his
: spirit and his solitude, and for ten years
: did not weary of it. But finally he had a
: change of heart - and rising one morning
: with the dawn, he went before the sun, and
: spoke thus to it: "Oh great star! What
: would your happiness be if you did not have
: us to shine for?
: "For ten years you have climbed here to
: my cave: you would have become weary of
: shining and of the journey, had it not been
: for me, my eagle, and my serpent.
: "But we waited for you every morning,
: took from you your overflow, and blessed you
: for it.
: "Behold! I am weary of my wisdom, like
: the bee that has gathered too much honey; I
: need hands outstretched to take it from me.
: I wish to spread it and bestow it, until the
: wise have once more become joyous in their
: folly, and the poor happy in their riches.
: "For that I must descend into the
: depths, as you do in the evening when you go
: below the sea and bring light also to the
: underworld, you superabundant star!
: "Like you, I must descend - as the men,
: to whom I shall go, call it.
: "So bless me then, you tranquil eye
: that can behold even the greatest happiness
: without envy!
: "Bless the cup that is about to
: overflow, that the water may flow golden out
: of it, and carry everywhere the reflection
: of your bliss!
: "Behold! This cup wants to become empty
: again, and Zarathustra wants to be a man
: again.
: Thus began Zarathustra's descent.
: ________________________________
: First of all I found this translation (does
: anyone know which one it is?) at Wikisource
: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Thus_Spake_Zarathustra
: ; I find it better than the Thomas Common
: one. First of all it is less archaic, and it
: is closer to the original, for example:
: "und eines Morgens stand er mit der
: Morgenröthe"
: is here: "and rising one morning with
: the dawn"
: Common has: "and rising one morning
: with the rosy dawn"
:
: Morgenröthe or Morgenröte simply means
: "dawn" and making it
: "rosy" gives the text a kitsch
: tone that it does not have.
: _______________________________
: The first phrase of the Zarathustra is a
: biblical allusion (notes of the Critical
: Edition KSA): Luke 3:23: "Now Jesus
: himself was about thirty years old when he
: began his ministry."
: To me that is really essential, because if
: God is dead, by what light will we live? I'm
: convinced that Nietzsche has seen a new
: light, a new sun rising and that's the story
: he's going to tell us. He's using a biblical
: style to tell his readers: fear not, there
: is just as much meaning to life after the
: death of God. Meaning as strong as a
: biblical text.
: _______________________________
: Symbols: "my eagle, and my
: serpent": the eagle is the symbol of
: St John the evangelist, and so of rising,
: of spirit. The serpent is course form
: Genesis and represents Christian Evil.
: Translated is Nietzsche's terms the eagle
: would be the Apollinian (as the Sun is the
: god Apollo too) and the serpent the
: Dionysian aspects of life (as the bees,
: symbols of Demeter, goddess of the
: underworld
: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_
: (mythology) ) . Dionysus (as Iacchus) was
: the son of Demeter in the Greek Eleusian
: mystery cults.
: "For that I must descend into the
: depths" also is Dionysian, in contrast
: to the Sun.
:
: All ideas welcome!
: Thomas
:
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