Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Friedrich Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
Twilight of the Idols: Introduction
Twilight of the Idols: Plot Summary
Twilight of the Idols: Detailed Summary & Analysis
Twilight of the Idols: Themes
Twilight of the Idols: Quotes
Twilight of the Idols: Characters
Twilight of the Idols: Terms
Twilight of the Idols: Symbols
Twilight of the Idols: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of Friedrich Nietzsche
Historical Context of Twilight of the Idols
Other Books Related to Twilight of the Idols
- Full Title: Twilight of the Idols: or How to Philosophize with a Hammer
- When Written: 1888
- Where Written: Sils Maria, Switzerland
- When Published: 1889
- Literary Period: Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
- Genre: Philosophy
- Point of View: First Person
Extra Credit for Twilight of the Idols
Art Resembles Life. Nietzsche supposedly suffered a mental breakdown after he witnessed the beating of a horse in Turin, Italy. It’s said that he ran to the horse and embraced it before falling to the ground. The Turin Horse, an art film by Hungarian director Béla Tarr, begins with a narrator recalling Nietzsche’s breakdown and draws inspiration from the incident. Tarr was inspired to make the film upon hearing the film’s writer, László Krasznahorkai, tell the story of Nietzsche’s breakdown.
Puns auf Deutsche. The original German title of Twilight of the Idols, Götzen-Dämmerung, is a play on Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), the title of an opera by Richard Wagner (Nietzsche’s former friend, who was by then his foe). Nietzsche’s title plays on the original title, changing Götter (Gods) to Götzen (false Gods—idols).