malicious inventions of the mother of death, who in this way wishes to draw him to herself. The mysteries, however, consolingly promise that there is no contradiction[131] or disharmony when life is changed into death: [Greek: tau~ros dra/kontos kai\ patê/r tau/rou dra/kôu].
Nietzsche, too, gives expression to this mystery:[132]
"Here do I sit now,
That is, I'm swallowed down
By this the smallest oasis—
—It opened up just yawning,
Its loveliest maw agape.
Hail! hail! to that whalefish,
When he for his guests' welfare
Provided thus!
Hail to his belly
If he had also
Such a lovely oasis belly—
The desert grows, woe to him
Who hides the desert!
Stone grinds on stone, the desert
Gulps and strangles.
The monstrous death gazes, glowing brown,
And chews—his life is his chewing . . .
Forget not, O man, burnt out by lust,
Thou art the stone, the desert,
Thou art death!"
The serpent symbolism of the Last Supper is explained by the identification of the hero with the serpent: The god is buried in the mother: as fruit of the field, as food coming from the mother and at the same time as drink of immortality he is received by the mystic, or as a serpent he unites with the mystic. All these symbols rep-
