Nietzsche’s first public statement of the doctrine of the eternal return in aphorism 341 of The Gay Science has not found the scholarly attention it deserves.1 Nietzsche hesitated about whether he should at this point already reveal to the public what had most deeply moved him since August of 1881.2 In January 1882 he still wanted to let the matter rest with the first three books of what became The Gay Science, which were conceived as a continuation of Daybreak, in other words to postpone the communication of the notion.3 Soon thereafter he changed his mind. Out of the planned continuation there emerged a new work; he finished the fourth book and in its penultimate aphorism he alluded to his “thought of thoughts” without expressly speaking of a “doctrine of return.” The encounter with Lou Salomé, to whom Nietzsche relayed his disconcerting new insight in a private conversation, may have furthered the development, at least in the sense that he found the courage to have his thought. Here, however, I will not treat biographical details. I am concerned, rather, with shedding light on the central motifs and stylistic devices of the aphorism.