Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Richard Wagner in Bayreuthhimself with treaties, loses his freedom, and becomes enmeshed inthe curse which lies upon all power. His unfreedom is broughthome to him especially by the fact that he no longer has any meansof getting possession of the golden ring, the epitome of all earthlypower and representing at the same time the most extreme danger tohimself so long as it is in the possession of his enemies: he is overcomeby fear of the ending and twilight of all the gods and by despairat being able only to watch this ending approach and do nothing toprevent it. He needs a free, fearless human being who, without hisassistance or advice, indeed in conflict with the divine order, will ofhis own volition perfo rm the deed denied to the god: this humanbeing is nowhere to be seen, and it is precisely when a new hope ofhim dawns that the god is compelled to obey the constraint thatbinds him: what he loves most he has to destroy, and has to punishan act of the purest pity. At length he comes to feel a disgust forpower, which bears in its womb only evil and unfreedom, his willbreaks, he himselflongs for the ending that threatens him from afar.And only now does there come to pass that which previously he hadmost desired: the free, fearless human being appears, born in conflictwith all that is custom and tradition; his begetters expiate thefact that their union was counter to the order of nature and morality:they perish, but Siegfried lives. At the sight of his wonderful evolutionand blossoming, disgust gives way in Wotan's soul, he followsthe hero's fortunes with the eye of fatherly love and anxiety. How heforges the sword fo r himself, slays the dragon, gains the ring, eludesthe cunningest deception, awakens Brilnnhilde; how the curse thatlies on the ring does not spare even him but approaches him closerand closer; how, loyal in disloyalty, wounding through love her heloves most, he is engulfed by the mists and shadows of guilt, but atlast emerges as clear as the sun and goes under, igniting the wholeheavens with his fiery glow and cleansing the world of the curse: allthis the god - whose commanding spear has been shattered in combatwith the freest of men, who has thereby deprived him of hispower- beholds with joy at his own defeat, rejoicing and at one withhis conqueror: his eye reposes with the light of a painful blissfulnessupon the concluding events, he has become free in love, freefrom himself.And now ask yourselves, you who are living today! Was thiscreated for you? Have you the courage to point to the stars in thiscelestial vault of beauty and goodness and say: it is our life thatWagner has set among the stars!Where among you are those able to interpret the divine image of253