Thus Spake Zarathustra

Zarathustra - an ancient Persian prophet - is used by Nietzsche as a mouthpiece for his own philosophical views on a range of ideas. Beginning with the concept of the Übermensch or Overman, which he saw as the ultimate goal of humanity, Zarathustra expounds on a number of other doctrines, including nihilism - the belief in nothing; and Eternal Recurrence - explained as events repeating themselves for eternity. Written and published in the last years of the 19th century, Thus Spake Zarathustra is still regarded as a masterly, provocative philosophical work by one of the most important and influential intellectuals of modern times.