_The two types; Dionysus and Christ on the Cross._ We should ascertain whether the typically _religious_ man is a decadent phenomenon (the great innovators are one and all morbid and epileptic); but do not let us forget to include that type of the religious man who is _pagan._ Is the pagan cult not a form of gratitude for, and affirmation of, Life? Ought not its most representative type to be an apology and deification of Life? The type of a well-constituted and ecstatically overflowing spirit! The type of a spirit which absorbs the contradictions and problems of existence, and which _solves_ them! At this point I set up the _Dionysus_ of the Greeks: the religious affirmation of Life, of the whole of Life, not of denied and partial Life (it is typical that in this cult the sexual act awakens ideas of depth, mystery, and reverence). Dionysus _versus_ "Christ"; here you have the contrast. It is _not_ a difference in regard to the martyrdom,--but the latter has a different meaning. Life itself--Life s eternal fruitfulness and recurrence caused anguish, destruction, and the will to annihilation. In the other case, the suffering of the "Christ as the Innocent One" stands as an objection against Life, it is the formula of Life's condemnation.--Readers will guess that the problem concerns the meaning of suffering; whether a Christian or a tragic meaning be given to it. In the first case it is the road to a holy mode of existence; in the second case _existence itself is regarded as sufficiently holy_ to justify an enormous amount of suffering. The tragic man says yea even to the most excruciating suffering: he is sufficiently strong, rich, and capable of deifying, to be able to do this; the Christian denies even the happy lots on earth: he is weak, poor, and disinherited enough to suffer from life in any form. God on the Cross is a curse upon Life, a signpost directing people to deliver themselves from it;--Dionysus cut into pieces is a _promise_ of Life: it will be for ever born anew, and rise afresh from destruction. III. ETERNAL RECURRENCE. 1053. My philosophy reveals the triumphant thought through which all other systems of thought must ultimately perish. It is the great disciplinary thought: those races that cannot bear it are doomed; those which regard it as the greatest blessing are destined to rule. 1054. The _greatest_ of all fights: for this purpose a new _weapon_ is required. A hammer: a terrible alternative must be created. Europe must be brought face to face with the logic of facts, and confronted with the question whether its will for ruin is really earnest. General levelling down to mediocrity must be avoided. Rather than this it would be preferable to perish. 1055.