Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Of the Tarantulas Summary & Analysis

Zarathustra tells a parable of a tarantula, which symbolizes “preachers of equality.” Their “justice” is merely vengefulness in disguise. Tarantulas equate virtue with “will to equality,” and they protest everything that has power. This protest is really a tyrannical appetite, a repressed envy.

Zarathustra warns his followers to mistrust anyone who has a strong desire to punish, especially when they are the “good and just.” Even some of those who teach Zarathustra’s doctrine are actually “tarantulas” who preach equality, but Zarathustra does not want to be confused with them. To him, justice says that people are not equal. If it were otherwise, he would not love the Superman. The whole point of life is that it must “overcome itself again and again.” It therefore needs “conflict between steps and those who climb them.”