In the year 1759 the twenty-nine year old Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788), later to acquire the sobriquet Magus im Norden, launched his formal career as a writer with a brief essay bearing the curious title, Socratic Memorabilia, Compiled for the Boredom of the Public by a Lover of Boredom.¹ One hundred and thirteen years later, in 1872, the twenty-seven year old Friedrich Nietzsche published his first major work under the singular, but more sober title, class="EmphasisTypeItalic ">The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music.² It is an interesting and significant fact that both writers commenced their careers with works in which Socrates appears as the central figure. It happens, however, that the accounts of the Greek philosopher appearing in the two works are so different that one might well wonder whether the authors were writing about the same historical personage. This fact strikes us as all the more surprising when we remember that, despite the deep religious gulf which separates them, the two thinkers have much in common.