The Prophet of the Great Weariness

The Prophet of the Great Weariness returns as both a bearer of distress and a tempter toward pity. Having once been a guest at Zarathustra’s table, he reappears with a warning: a human cry is rising from the depths, and the Higher Man is calling for Zarathustra. His arrival sets the search for the Higher Man in motion, while his later presence among the gathered visitors confirms that the cry has drawn a company to Zarathustra’s cave. A note identifies the prophet as Arthur Schopenhauer, giving the figure a philosophical association as well as a role in the narrative.

Identity and Earlier Connection

The prophet is introduced through his teaching of weariness: he had proclaimed that everything was alike, nothing worthwhile, the world without meaning, and knowledge suffocating. That bleak doctrine marks him as a voice of nihilistic exhaustion. Yet his return is not merely a repetition of his former teaching. His face now bears signs of dire prophecy, and Zarathustra reads in his eyes a passage of ominous foretellings. The change in his appearance gives his visit a new urgency without explaining the source or content of those prophecies.

The two men recognize each other before they speak at length. Each wipes a hand across his face, then they shake hands in a silent sign of mutual recognition. Their exchange recalls the prophet’s earlier place at Zarathustra’s table: Zarathustra welcomes him back and offers food and drink again. The greeting is warm, but the prophet immediately challenges the ease of the welcome. He predicts that Zarathustra has little time left in the mountain retreat, using the image of a boat stranded in the dry as he describes waves of distress rising around the mountain.

The Cry and the Call to Pity

At first Zarathustra does not understand the warning. The prophet urges him to listen for a rushing sound from the depths; after a silence, a prolonged cry carries from abyss to abyss. Zarathustra recognizes it as a human cry, perhaps coming from a black sea, but asks what human distress has to do with him. He frames the question around an ultimate sin reserved for himself. The prophet answers with pity, raising both hands, and declares that he has come to tempt Zarathustra toward it.

The cry sounds again, longer and nearer, and the prophet insists that it is meant for Zarathustra. Its repeated summons turns the scene from a report of distant suffering into a direct appeal. Zarathustra, confused and deeply shaken, asks who is calling. The prophet answers that it is the Higher Man. Zarathustra reacts with horror and asks what the Higher Man wants there; the narrative records his sweat and trembling. The prophet’s role is thus precise: he identifies the call and names the figure behind it, but he does not explain what the Higher Man wants. His warning brings Zarathustra to the threshold of an encounter while leaving its purpose unresolved.

Return to the Gathering

Later that day, after Zarathustra has searched and roamed in vain, the cry sounds again as he approaches his cave. This time it comes from inside and is composed of many voices, though at a distance it could be mistaken for one. Among those seated together are the King on the Right, the King on the Left, the Sorcerer, the Abdicated Pope, the Voluntary Beggar, the Shadow, the Conscientious Man of the Spirit, the prophet, the Ass, and the Ugliest Man. The prophet is therefore one member of a larger company, not the sole source of the distressing call.

Zarathustra’s Eagle is also present, agitated beside the gathering, with the Serpent around its neck. Zarathustra studies the assembled visitors before speaking and recognizes their cry as the one he heard earlier. He also realizes that the person he had searched for without success is to be sought among them: the Higher Man. The prophet’s announcement has not simply foretold an abstract crisis. It has prepared the transition from an isolated cry in the depths to a visible gathering at Zarathustra’s cave.

Narrative Role and Significance

The prophet connects two contrasting forms of speech. His former doctrine reduces the world to meaninglessness; his present intervention calls attention to a particular human appeal and presses Zarathustra with the question of pity. He does not resolve that tension. Instead, his warning makes it the condition of the next movement in the story: Zarathustra must respond to the cry, yet the prophet identifies response itself as a possible temptation.

The scene also gives the prophet a double function as messenger and participant. He interprets the cry before its many voices are seen together, then appears within the group that gives the cry its human plurality. The gap between those moments preserves uncertainty about the callers until Zarathustra returns to the cave. By naming the Higher Man before the gathering is disclosed, the prophet directs the reader’s attention toward that figure; by remaining among the company, he helps reveal that the summons belongs to a collective crisis rather than to a single isolated voice.