Dionysus or Apollo? The heteronym Antonio Mora as moment of Nietzsche's reception by Pessoa

While no books by Nietzsche were found in his library, there is evidence that Fernando Pessoa was strongly influenced, positively and negatively, by secondary readings of his work. Pessoa's minor heteronym, Antonio Mora, appears to be modelled on a popular conception of Nietzsche, and follows earlier heteronyms in rejecting Christianity as being against nature, and favouring instead classical paganism. However, Mora differs from some other commentators at the time of the First World War in identifying Prussian militarism as in a direct line of descent from Nietzsche. This article argues that although influenced by Nietzsche, Pessoa had a limited understanding of his philosophy, seeing only the wild Dionysian side, untamed by the more optimistic Apollonian reading of humanity.