Nietzsche e le epifanie del demone

The figure of the demon plays a significant role in the work of Nietzsche. Nietzsche entrusts to this figure the first, most important and explicit communication of the Eternal Return in the aphorism 341 of The Gay Science. What would be the sense of the eternal return revelation entrusted to a demon? When you consider the usual Nietzschean accuracy in the construction of texts, it is to rule out the possibility of a simply ornamental use of a literary topos, especially when you consider the crucial nature of this text. Although this point has already been effectively highlighted, it is worth returning on our first question about the nature of the demon, starting from its origin and its function in Nietzsche and in the traditions which Nietzsche draws on and to which he refers. These include in particular the Greek tradition. We will try to show how the figure of this demon in the aphorism 341 of The Gay Science refers, above all, to this tradition, particularly to the pre-platonic one. The reference to the Greeks constitutes the background and the main theme of the context in which the eternal return revelation appears in The Gay Science, as it is proved by the succession of the last three aphorisms of the fourth book, where the aphorism 341 occupies a central and strategic position in the textual architecture. A survey of occurrences makes it plausible that the “epiphany” of the demon in the aphorism 341 can be in continuity with and related to other epiphanies that date back to the period of The Birth of Tragedy. The latters can therefore be read as anticipations of the text contained in The Gay Science. In this sense, a further aim of my contribution is to show how the main ideas of the aphorism 341 are rooted in the period of The Birth of Tragedy. Considering these anticipations, the aphorism 341 would be an expression of the tragic thought and of the Dionysian vision and the figure of the demon appearing in this text could be considered a decisive epiphany of the Dionysian and, more generally, of the Tragic. The essential reason for the presence of the demon in the aphorism 341 would be closely linked to the more archaic semantics of the word “demon” and the experience described in the text would have something to do with the experience of the Tragic as a radical experience of temporality and hence of what can be considered the proprium of existence itself.

Alla luce di tali anticipazioni, l’aforisma 341 sarebbe espressione del pensiero tragico e della sua verità dionisiaca e la figura del demone che in questo testo compare, una decisiva epifania del dionisiaco e, più in generale del tragico. La ragione essenziale della presenza del demone nell’aforisma 341 sarebbe strettamente legata alla semantica più arcaica del termine “demone” e l’esperienza descritta nel testo avrebbe a che fare con l’esperienza del tragico in quanto esperienza radicale della temporalità e dunque dell’esistenza in quello che ad essa inerisce in maniera essenziale come ciò che le è più proprio.