86 Nietzschefurther the prosaic aims of bourgeois society, Nietzsche reacted with
bitter disappointment. The strengthening of the economy, the state, or
a religion beholden to the state was light-years away from his vision of
the renaissance of the German mind. In The Birth of Tragedy, this rebirth
seemed to him more like the image of Wagner's Siegfried: "Let us con-
template a rising generation with this intrepid vision, with this heroic
procession to the colossal; let us imagine the bold step of these dragon
slayers, the proud audacity with which they turn their backs on all the
feeble doctrines of optimism, opting to live resolutely' in the fullness of
being: would it not be necessary for the tragic individual of this culture,
steeled to face severity and terror... to desire a new art, the art of meta-
physical solace?" (1,21; ÄP'Attempt at Self-Criticism" § 7).
Nietzsche was still banking on metaphysical solace at this time, but
later, after he broke with Wagner, he was on the lookout for a perspec-
tive on life that would transcend any need for solace. He began to turn
away from Wagner in his mind at a time in which he was "officially" still
a follower of the composer. Nietzsche later explained that the fourth
Untimely Meditation, on Richard Wagner, reflected a train of thought that
had already been superseded by the time of composition. We will later
trace this inner evolution in his thinking. In The Birth of Tragedy and in
"Richard Wagner in Bayreuth," Nietzsche continued to ponder "meta-
physical solace" in the sense of a revitalization of myth and activation
of the myth-building potential of consciousness. He sang the praises of
Wagner's works, which were forging powerful new myths.
In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche defined myth as a "concentrated
image of the world" (1,145; BT% 23) in which life is thrust into the light
of a higher significance. Its meaning is not merely individual but also
yields a social and cultural context. "Without myth, however, every cul-
ture loses its natural healthy creative power: only a horizon encircled
with myths can mark off a cultural movement as a discrete unit" (1,145).
Creativity and thought are spared "indiscrimate rambling" (1,145) by
myths. Nietzsche concluded that the current lack of myths consigns
modern man to deracination. Modern people seek to anchor themselves