“We, Gods in Exile!” Heine, Nietzsche and the “Errors” of the Man on Himself

Abstract

Taking Nietzsche´s comprehension of philosophy as the art of transfiguration, the text analyses how the philosopher incorporates and transfigures The Gods in Exile, from Heinrich Heine. The philosopher would have inverted the perspective of the problem settled by Heine and his expositive procedure: if the poet bring us what would be an humanization and a “gentifrication” of the ancient gods as a cosmic degradation act by which the ascension of Christianity would be blamed, Nietzsche analyses the mistaken autodivinization of man through morals as a tragic megalomania, whose consequence would be the invocation of a suffering at the core of earthly existence and a hope in a better, ethereal life.

Keywords:
death of God; transfiguration; mythology; autodivinization