More from Byron Seidrmann

I think certainly Nietzsche was specifically drawn to use Germanic "mythology" aka religion as an aesthetic format because he was of Germanic heritage. It was an involuntary instinct for him to do so. That's not the only reason, but it's the core of it. For the most part Nietzsche's general philosophies are comfortably in line with the thinking of his ancient Germanic ancestors. Where his thinking departs from traditional pagan Germanic thinking is his tendency to sometimes morph his nihilism into the grimmer realms of Fatalism and Social Darwinism. Also some argue that he sometimes slipped into sexism. I don't know if Nietsche was sexist or not. I think he may have drifted into that sometimes.                       

The Germanic tradition is perfectly in line with the basic precepts of feminism. Ancient Germanic women were held in high regard, and enjoyed more equity and freedom than most other women in the ancient world. It's the Germanic tradition to believe that men and women are "equal". It's a vague term anyway. But you know what I mean in this context. Men and women are of equal intelligence. Ancient Germanic women were considered by the men to be of equal or even superior intelligence to themselves. The wisdom of women was taken seriously, and was actively sought out  and followed by men.                 Women were favored to some extent in ancient times,in ways which by modern standards are outdated. A sort of pagan chivalry prevailed. Raping women and children was strictly taboo, outright  banned(which was rare in the ancient world), and violators were castrated and or hung. But raping men was permitted. This was unfortunate , but undeniably true. Raping men was not seen as real rape. It was an act of war. 

Ancient Germanic Women were not outright banned from being warriors, but very few women were warriors.  It was an extremely male oriented social role in ancient Germanic societies. The goddess Freya is a war goddess as well and a love goddess and the master of all shamans. She taught shamanism to Odin. Of interest is that most of her most loyal followers in ancient times were men. Most of the warriors in ancient Germanic cultures were men. But we know from accounts and artistic depictions that a small minority of women did become warriors. It was much more common in other North-western European cultures to see women warriors an soldiers. This lack of women in the armed professions should never cause anyone to think that ancient Germanic women didn't hold high levels of respect and powerful social roles in society. Some scholars of ancient Germanic cultures postulate that it few women would have had any interest in taking part in the horrific bloodbaths which the men were expected to take part it. When a woman really wanted to take part on the horror show she worked hard and made it happen. So, I think it's clearly apparent that Nietsche was influenced by  and largely in line with the ways of his ancestors. But his Germanic ancestors would have agreed with the basic precepts of feminism. In general women and men shared and freely switched social roles and professions in ancient Germanic societies. Only the military was male dominated. Women were the ones who were considered the masters of the spirit and the intellect.