ABSTRACT
Zarathustra's animals know, moreover, that the role of prophet, with its grand soliloquies and visionary rhetoric, is one with which Zarathustra, once he has mastered the role, will be loth to part. Physicians metamorphose into metaphysicians: the 'moral terrorism' of the interminable 'Round of Existence', and the unendurable pressure which it places on the 'moment', are adroitly excised by Zarathustra's animals and the wound treated by 'a cosmic therapy' which transforms this vicious circularity into a wheel of innocent becoming, renewal, and rebirth. On the contrary, as Zarathustra's proud and deceptive consciousness gives way to thrusting and inexorable instinct, the full extent of his sickness becomes glaringly apparent. Conversing with his soul, the convalescent continues to lament and whine over the incurable melancholy of his recalcitrant soul, and Zarathustra bears the unmistakable marks of romantic pessimism. As Zarathustra's proud and deceptive consciousness gives way to thrusting and inexorable instinct, the full extent of his sickness becomes glaringly apparent.
