The animal symbolism is an intriguing aspect of Lampert's work to begin Nietzsche's magnum opus. In Chapter 1 the animals (p. 29) are said to be Klugheit - cleverness and not lustig - implying low prudence, cunning (p. 315 n. 29; Gen. 3.1, 14, cf. Mt 10.16). There is also a relevant discussion in Janz, Nietzsche. Further elaboration can be found on p. 315 n. 31. The animal motif continues (p. 34) with Nietzsche's well-known transformation or metamorphoses from a camel to a lion to a child. The camel is a beast of burden which begins the difficult ascent to knowledge, once empowered an individual will be a lion, and once at peace, a child. In the same context, Nietzsche refers to a pangolin, any mammal of the order Pholidota, of Africa and tropical Asia, having a covering of broad, overlapping, horny scales and feeding on ants and termites. Nietzsche uses the term for its implication since this is an animal who rolls up, so called from its habit of curling into a ball when threatened.

In Chapters 2 - 7, Zarathustra entertains the idea of another teacher (pp. 36-38), Nietzsche seems to reject nihilism. Nietzsche explores knowledge of the body, not the after world. Chapter 3 is after worldly, in the sense of a back woodsmen, the German Hinterweltler, akin to Hinterwaeldler - a complete rustic or backwoodsman (p. 317 n. 57). Nietzsche is asking what is to be known and where can reliable knowledge be found?

"The healthy body speaks the meaning of the earth" (p. 40). Nietzsche is interested in knowledge of the body, not the afterlife. Virtue vs. the passions is the battleground in the Western tradition from Aristotle through Kant, according to Nietzsche. The Western tradition then teach that the battle to be virtuous subjugates the passions, but at the price of the self, or life. On the other hand, "the inwardness sought is an overcoming of self in the service of a historic possibility" (p. 42). "This battle of the virtues could be the chaos still present in man that makes possible the birth of a dancing star" (p. 318 n. 63, according to Lampert's understanding of Prologue 5).

On p. 43 the meaning of Vom bleichen Verbrecher, "On the Pale Criminal" is obscure although the translation is accurate (p. 31, Also sprach Zarathustra, http://www.librarything.com/work/35566/33167508).

Lampert takes up the problematic area of Nietzsche on war and how he was unfortunately slammed unnecessarily because of his sister's perfidy and the Nazi misappropriation of his ideas (p. 321 n. 83, Cf. Thomas German Politics, esp. pp. 125-131).

Nietzsche does not support the idea of state but he holds recourse to the notion of peoples, in contrast to the development of the modern nation-state (p. 54).

The Adder's Bite (I, 19) directly contradicts the NT view to requite evil with good, instead it "arms the enemy and aims at enmity" (p. 70). Zarathustra/Nietzsche measures enemies to evaluate their threat to him.

"Marriage: thus I call the will of two to create that one which is more than they who created it" (p. 106; http://www.librarything.com/work/98373/summary/76601384). The usual tripe as reasons to marry are dismissed. As in all teaching, Nietzsche is pointing out that the purpose of marriage is to prepare for the superman.

(I, 21) It does see odd that Zarathustra does not choose the "free death" he espouses. He advocates suicide--free death--and yet, he asks his disciples for forgiveness since he remains to anticipate das uebermenshch.

The Provisional Teaching, Pt. 1: "The disciples exist as means to the superman" (p. 77).

Although often seen as anti-religious, Nietzsche realizes that a religious hold on people is fading and thus not worthy of contempt. What is truly despicable though is "the modern teaching on progress" (p. 80). Democratic politics are lamented, the contemporary hold over the herd.

Nietzsche's teaching in Part I has been Apollonian. Part II will be Dionysian (p. 82).

The lapsed disciples (p. 87) tried to synthesize Zarathustra's teachings but Zarathustra rejects this attempt entirely. He specifically excoriates the Christian forms that modernity takes to point back to the superior Greek modes of thought. Wild Wisdom's Young (Chapters 2-7) oppose Christian modernity.

In Part I Zarathustra attracts disciples, in Part II he repels contrary teachers.