Thus Spoke Zarathustra · Chapter
The Apostates explained
Zarathustra observes that those who once followed him with youthful vigor have now become weary, comfortable, and have 'again become pious.' He mocks their return to religious devotion, describing them as cowardly and light-dreading.
What happens
Zarathustra observes that those who once followed him with youthful vigor have now become weary, comfortable, and have 'again become pious.' He mocks their return to religious devotion, describing them as cowardly and light-dreading. He recounts overhearing night-watchmen doubt God, and he laughs at their foolishness, asserting that the old gods laughed themselves to death when one claimed to be the only God. Zarathustra advises himself not to lament the withering of these followers but to blow them away like dead leaves.
Themes in this chapter
Death of God and Revaluation of Values
Zarathustra mocks the night-watchmen's doubts about God and recounts the gods laughing themselves to death when one claimed to be the only God, emphasizing the end of old values.
Critique of Herd Morality
Zarathustra condemns the apostates as cowardly, commonplace, and part of the 'great majority' who return to piety out of weakness, embodying herd morality.
Solitude and Companionship
Zarathustra reflects on the loneliness of his path and the fickleness of followers, advising himself not to bind his heart to believers who will eventually fall away.
Characters to notice
- Zarathustra
Zarathustra reflects on the apostasy of his former followers and mocks their return to piety, while rejoicing in his imminent return home.
- The Higher Men
Implied as the former followers who have become apostates, now weary and pious.
- The Ass
Mentioned metaphorically when Zarathustra laughs at 'asses drunken' and night-watchmen doubting God.
Key passages
“Hath the time not long since passed for all such doubts? Who may nowadays awaken such old slumbering, light-shunning things! With the old Deities hath it long since come to an end:—and verily, a good joyful Deity-end had they! They did not 'begloom' themselves to death—that do people fabricate! On the contrary, they— laughed themselves to death once on a time!”
Zarathustra declares that the time for doubting God is long past; the old gods ended joyfully by laughing themselves to death, not by gloom.
This passage encapsulates Nietzsche's idea of the death of God as a liberating, joyful event rather than a tragic one.
“We have again become pious—so do those apostates confess; and some of them are still too pusillanimous thus to confess.”
The apostates admit they have returned to religious piety, though some are too cowardly to say it openly.
Zarathustra exposes the hypocrisy and weakness of those who revert to faith after once embracing free thought.