Primal nature
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| - | The '''Apollonian and Dionysian''' is a [[philosophical]] and [[literary]] [[concept]], or [[dichotomy]], based on certain features of [[ancient]] [[Greek mythology]]. Several [[Western culture|Western]] philosophical and literary figures have invoked this dichotomy in critical and creative works, including [[Plutarch]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Robert A. Heinlein]] , [[Ruth Benedict]], [[Thomas Mann]] and [[cultural critic]] [[Camille Paglia]]. | + | :''[[Adam and Eve]], [[basic instinct]], [[id]], [[state of nature]]'' |
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| - | In Greek mythology, [[Apollo]] and [[Dionysus]] are both [[son of God|sons]] of [[Zeus]]. Apollo is the [[solar deity|god of the Sun]], lightness, music, and [[poetry]], while Dionysus is the god of [[wine]], [[ecstasy]], and [[intoxication]]. In the modern literary usage of the concept, the contrast between Apollo and Dionysus symbolizes principles of [[individualism]] versus [[wholeness]], [[light]] versus [[darkness]], or [[civilization]] versus [[primal nature]]. The ancient Greeks did not consider the two [[polytheism|god]]s as opposites or rivals. | + | |
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| - | == German philosophy == | + | |
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| - | Although the use of the concepts of Apollonian and Dionysian is famously related to [[Nietzsche]]'s ''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]'', the terms were used before him in [[Prussia]]. The poet [[Hölderlin]] used it, while [[Winckelmann]] talked of [[Dionysus|Bacchus]], the god of wine. | + | |
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| - | ==Nietzsche's usage== | + | |
| - | :''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]'' | + | |
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| - | Nietzsche's [[aesthetic]] usage of the concepts, which was later developed philosophically, began with his book ''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]''. In this work, he stated that a fusion of Dionysian and Apollonian "Kunsttriebe" (artistic impulses) is dramatic art's ([[tragedy]]'s) main prerequisite and that this has essentially not been achieved since ancient Greek tragedy. Nietzsche emphasizes that the works of [[Aeschylus]], above all, and also [[Sophocles]] represent the summit of artistic creation, the true realization of tragedy; it is with [[Euripides]], he states, that tragedy begins its "Untergang" (literally "going under," meaning decline, deterioration, downfall, death). Nietzsche objects to Euripides' utilization of Socratic rationalism in his tragedies, claiming that the infusion of [[ethics]] and [[reason]] in tragedy robs it of its foundation, namely the fragile balance of the Dionysian and Apollonian. | + | |
| - | <!-- As above these two principles can only be described by provisional estimations, and whatever Nietzsche states ought to mime that chord scrupulously, but these contrasts/notations might make it quite familiar to the reader wherewith their meaning can be adduced. Furthermore, something will have to be mentioned about the Greeks ''et cetera'' below in this section of the article; therefore, I have added a "section-stub" here. Consequently, other parts of this article will most likely require a slight alteration as well and additional evenhandedness for this is a much debated topic. --> | + | |
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| - | '''Apollo''' (''Apollonian'' or ''Apollinian''): the dream state, ''principium individuationis'' ([[individuation|principle of individuation]]), plastic (visual) arts, beauty, clarity, stint to formed boundaries, individuality, celebration of appearance/illusion, human beings as artists (or media of art's manifestation), self-control, perfection, exhaustion of possibilities, creation. | + | |
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| - | '''Dionysus''' (''Dionysian''): intoxication, celebration of nature, instinctual, intuitive, pertaining to the sensation of pleasure or pain, individuality dissolved and hence destroyed, wholeness of existence, orgiastic passion, dissolution of all boundaries, excess, human being(s) as the work and glorification of art, destruction. | + | |
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