How Thus Spoke Zarathustra drew on The Republic
A documented line of influence: Friedrich Nietzsche demonstrably engaged Plato’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Republic
Plato · c. 375 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Friedrich Nietzsche · 1883
The Age of the NovelRelevance
7/10
On Thus Spoke Zarathustra’s page
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a conscious inversion of The Republic — Nietzsche the philologist knew exactly whose cave he was rewriting
- Plato's prisoners climb out of the cave toward the sun; Zarathustra climbs up to his cave on the mountain, the allegory deliberately reversed
- He even starts at thirty, the age Plato sets for the dialectic — read the Republic first and you'll see Nietzsche answering it line by line
On The Republic’s page
- Nietzsche, a trained philologist, built Zarathustra as a deliberate reversal of Plato's philosopher-ruler
- The cave is the tell: Plato's rulers ascend out of the cave into the light, while Zarathustra ascends to his cave on the mountain — the same image turned inside out
- Even the detail of age echoes — Zarathustra begins at thirty, Plato's age for introducing rulers to dialectic