The hermeneutical reconstruction of Goethe's influence in Nietzsche's early works is still one of the most fascinating tasks to be undertaken by the Nietzschean studies. For this aim, we will, firstly, propose three Goethean dimensions of analisis, as scientist, as a thinker of Bildung and Kultur, in order to shape, secondly, the possible functions and meanings of Faust in Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. For his opera prima deals with a creative appropiation and reelaboration of numerous themes, motifs and common places of the great Goethean play, an intertextual reading of some concrete chapters will strenghten the idea that Faustian poetry reaffirms some central hypothesis of Nietzsche's early work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]