The book chronicles the fictitious travels and speeches of Zarathustra. Zarathustra's namesake was the founder of Zoroastrianism, usually known in English as Zoroaster. Nietzsche is clearly portraying a new or different Zarathustra, one who turns traditional morality on its head. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philologist, philosopher, cultural critic, poet and composer. He wrote several critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism. He was twenty four when he was appointed to the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, the youngest individual to have held this position.