Although the figure of Zarathustra and a large number of the leading thoughts in this work had appeared much earlier in the dreams and writings of the author, "Thus Spake Zarathustra" did not actually come into being until the month of August 1881 in Sils Maria; and it was the idea of the Eternal Recurrence of all things which finally induced my brother to set forth his new views in poetic language. In regard to his first conception of this idea, his autobiographical sketch, "Ecce Homo", written in the autumn of 1888, contains the following passage:--

Place: ¶118
License: Public domain · Source
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Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (WLC), CC BY 4.0

Although the figure of Zarathustra and a large number of the leading t… — Thus Spake Zarathustra