92 Nietzsche
convey the true meaning of existence, which, according to Wagner, is
the display of human creativity. He stated unequivocally: "The highest
purpose of mankind is artistic" (Wagner, Denken 145). Because revo-
lution stands in the service of art, art should stand in the service of
revolution. Because artists are truly free, they are also revolutionary.
Wagner's mythic Ring des Nibelungen developed an image of free indi-
viduals. Wagner intended this work to contribute to the project of
political liberation, yet he remained convinced that his creation could be
understood properly only once a revolution had taken place. However,
no success fill revolution was forthcoming. Wagner therefore had to set-
tle for communicating at least the necessity of a future revolution. In the
last decade of his life, during the years of his friendship with Nietzsche,
Wagner was disenchanted with politics but believed so fully in his art
that he thought it capable of compensating for or even replacing the
aborted revolution. The experience of art ought to be able to conjure
up a temporary moment of redemption from the evils of life and even
become a harbinger and promise of the great redemption at the end of
all time.
The composition of the Ring cycle took Wagner a full quarter of a
century. In November 1874 he finished Götterdämmerung. "I will say
nothing more," he noted on the last page of the score of the tetralogy.
In 1876, the entire Ring cycle premiered over the course of four days
to inaugurate the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. This event marked the cli-
max of Wagner's artistic career. Even after his break with Wagner,
Nietzsche called it the "greatest victory an artist has ever achieved"
(2,370; HHll Preface §1).
The Ring tells the story of the demise of the gods and the birth of
free people. The gods perish because of their own lust for power. From
the very beginning, they brought the world to ruin by their inability to
reconcile the two basic principles of life, namely love and power.
Instead, they pitted the two principles against each other. The gods
became ensnared in hostile life forces. They longed for a new begin-
ning, which would be possible only if the power of the gods ended with