TheApollonianand theDionysianarephilosophicalandliteraryconcepts represented by a duality between the figures ofApolloandDionysusfromGreek mythology.Its popularization is widely attributed to the workThe Birth of TragedybyFriedrich Nietzsche,though the terms had already been in use prior to this,[1]such as in the writings of poetFriedrich Hölderlin,historianJohann Joachim Winckelmann,and others. The word Dionysian occurs as early as 1608 inEdward Topsell's zoological treatiseThe History of Serpents.[2]The concept has since been widely invoked and discussed withinWestern philosophyandliterature.
In Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus are both sons ofZeus.Apollo, son ofLeto,is the god of the sun, art, music, poetry, plague and disease, ofrational thinkingand order, and appeals tologic,prudenceand purity and stands forreason.Dionysus, son ofSemele,is the god ofwine, dance and pleasure,ofirrationalityandchaos,representingpassion,emotions and instincts.Theancient Greeksdid not consider the two gods to be opposites or rivals, although they were often entwined by nature.
Nietzschean usage
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Nietzsche found in classical Athenian tragedy an art form thattranscendedthe pessimism found in the so-calledwisdom of Silenus.The Greek spectators, by looking into the abyss of human suffering depicted by characters on stage, passionately and joyously affirmed life, finding it worth living. The main theme inThe Birth of Tragedyis that the fusion of Dionysian and ApollonianKunsttriebe( "artistic impulses" ) forms dramatic arts or tragedies. He argued that this fusion has not been achieved since the ancient Greektragedians.Apollo represents harmony, progress, clarity, logic and theprinciple of individuation,whereas Dionysus represents disorder, intoxication, emotion, ecstasy and unity (hence the omission of the principle of individuation). Nietzsche used these two forces because, for him, the world of mind and order on one side, and passion and chaos on the other, formed principles that were fundamental to theGreek culture:[3][4]the Apollonian a dreaming state, full of illusions; and Dionysian a state of intoxication, representing the liberations of instinct and dissolution of boundaries. In this mould, a man appears as thesatyr.He is the horror of the annihilation of the principle ofindividualityand at the same time someone who delights in its destruction.[5]
Apollonian and Dionysian juxtapositions appear in the interplay of tragedy: the tragic hero of the drama, the main protagonist, struggles to make (Apollonian) order of his unjust and chaotic (Dionysian) fate, though he dies unfulfilled. Elaborating on the conception ofHamletas an intellectual who cannot make up his mind, and is a livingantithesisto the man of action, Nietzsche argues that a Dionysian figure possesses the knowledge that his actions cannot change the eternal balance of things, and it disgusts him enough not to act at all. Hamlet falls under this category—he glimpsed the supernatural reality through the Ghost; he has gained true knowledge and knows that no action of his has the power to change this. For the audience of such drama, this tragedy allows them to sense what Nietzsche called thePrimordial Unity,which revives Dionysian nature. He describes primordial unity as the increase of strength, the experience of fullness and plenitude bestowed byfrenzy.Frenzy acts as intoxication and is crucial for thephysiologicalcondition that enables the creation of any art.[citation needed]Stimulated by this state, a person's artistic will is enhanced:
Nietzsche is adamant that the works ofAeschylusandSophoclesrepresent the apex of artistic creation, the true realisation of tragedy; it is withEuripides,that tragedy begins itsUntergang(literally 'going under' or 'downward-way;' meaning decline, deterioration, downfall, death, etc.). Nietzsche objects to Euripides' use ofSocratic rationalismandmoralityin his tragedies, claiming that the infusion of ethics andreasonrobs tragedy of its foundation, namely the fragile balance of the Dionysian and Apollonian.Socratesemphasised reason to such a degree that he diffused the value of myth and suffering to human knowledge.Platocontinued along this path in his dialogues, and the modern world eventually inherited reason at the expense of artistic impulses found in the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy. He notes that without the Apollonian, the Dionysian lacks the form and structure to make a coherent piece of art, and without the Dionysian, the Apollonian lacks the necessary vitality and passion. Only the fertile interplay of these two forces brought together as an art represented the best of Greek tragedy.[6]In this state one enriches everything out of one's own fullness: whatever one sees, whatever wills is seen swelled, taut, strong, overloaded with strength. A man in this state transforms things until they mirror his power—until they are reflections of his perfection. This having to transform into perfection is—art.
Later usages
editContinental philosophy
editNietzsche's idea has been interpreted as an expression offragmented consciousnessorexistentialinstability by a variety of modern andpost-modernwriters, especiallyMartin Heidegger,Michel FoucaultandGilles Deleuze.[7][8]According toPeter Sloterdijk,the Dionysian and the Apollonian form adialectic;they are contrasting, but Nietzsche does not mean one to be valued more than the other.[9]Truth beingprimordial pain,our existential being is determined by the Dionysian/Apollonian dialectic.
Extending the use of the Apollonian and Dionysian onto an argument on interaction between the mind and physical environment, Abraham Akkerman has pointed to masculine and feminine features of city form.[10]
Ruth Benedict
editAnthropologistRuth Benedictused the terms to characterize cultures that value restraint and modesty (Apollonian) and ostentatiousness and excess (Dionysian). An example of an Apollonian culture in Benedict's analysis was theZuñi peopleas opposed to the DionysianKwakiutl people.[11]The theme was developed by Benedict in her main workPatterns of Culture.
Albert Szent-Györgyi
editAlbert Szent-Györgyi,who wrote that "a discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge",[12]divided scientists into two categories: the Apollonians and the Dionysians. He called scientific dissenters, who explored "the fringes of knowledge", Dionysians. He wrote, "In science the Apollonian tends to develop established lines to perfection, while the Dionysian rather relies on intuition and is more likely to open new, unexpected alleys for research...The future of mankind depends on the progress of science, and the progress of science depends on the support it can find. Support mostly takes the form of grants, and the present methods of distributing grants unduly favor the Apollonian".[12]
Camille Paglia
editAmerican humanities scholarCamille Pagliawrites about the Apollonian and Dionysian in her 1990 bestsellerSexual Personae.[13]The broad outline of her concept has roots in Nietzschean discourse, an admitted influence, although Paglia's ideas diverge significantly.
The Apollonian and Dionysian concepts comprise a dichotomy that serves as the basis of Paglia's theory of art and culture. For Paglia, the Apollonian is light and structured while the Dionysian is dark andchthonic(she prefersChthonicto Dionysian throughout the book, arguing that the latter concept has become all but synonymous withhedonismand is inadequate for her purposes, declaring that "the Dionysian is no picnic" ). The Chthonic is associated with females, wild/chaotic nature, and unconstrained sex/procreation. In contrast, the Apollonian is associated with males, clarity, celibacy and/or homosexuality, rationality/reason, and solidity, along with the goal of oriented progress: "Everything great in western civilization comes from struggle against our origins".[14]
She argues that there is a biological basis to the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy, writing: "The quarrel between Apollo and Dionysus is the quarrel between the highercortexand the olderlimbicandreptilian brains".[15]Moreover, Paglia attributes all the progress of human civilization to masculinity revolting against the Chthonic forces of nature, and turning instead to the Apollonian trait of ordered creation. The Dionysian is a force of chaos and destruction, which is the overpowering and alluring chaotic state of wild nature. Rejection of—or combat with—Chthonianism by socially constructed Apollonian virtues accounts for the historical dominance of men (includingasexualandhomosexualmen; and childless and/or lesbian-leaning women) in science, literature, arts, technology and politics. As an example, Paglia states: "The male orientation ofclassical Athenswas inseparable from its genius. Athens became great not despite but because of its misogyny ".[16]
See also
edit- "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres",a song by Canadian rock bandRushbased in part on the concept.
- The Decline of the West
- Faust
- Light and dark side ofthe Force
- Logocentrism
- Master-morality and slave-morality
References
edit- ^Adrian Del Caro, "Dionysian Classicism, or Nietzsche's Appropriation of an Aesthetic Norm"(in English),inJournal of the History of Ideas,Vol. 50, No. 4 (October–December 1989), pp. 589–605.JSTOR2709799.
- ^Topsell, Edward (1608).The History of Serpents.Published byWilliam Jaggard.
- ^"Nietzsche, Dionysus and Apollo".historyguide.org.
- ^Desmond, Kathleen K. (2011).Ideas About Art.John Wiley & Sons.ISBN978-1-4443-9600-3– viaGoogle Books.
- ^"Nietzsche's Apollonianism and Dionysiansism: Meaning and Interpretation".bachelorandmaster.
- ^"SparkNotes: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900): The Birth of Tragedy".sparknotes.
- ^Michael, Drolet (2004).The Postmodernism Reader.Routledge.ISBN9780415160841.
- ^Postmodernism and the re-reading of modernity By Francis Barker, Peter Hulme, Margaret Iversen, Manchester University Press,1992,ISBN978-0-7190-3745-0p. 258
- ^Thinker on Stage: Nietzsche's Materialism, translation by Jamie Owen Daniel; foreword by Jochen Schulte-Sasse, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1989.ISBN0-8166-1765-1
- ^Akkerman, Abraham (2006). "Femininity and Masculinity in City-Form: Philosophical Urbanism as a History of Consciousness".Human Studies.29(2): 229–256.doi:10.1007/s10746-006-9019-4.S2CID144871101.
- ^Benedict, Ruth (January 1932). "Configurations of Culture in North America".American Anthropologist.34(1): 1–27.doi:10.1525/aa.1932.34.1.02a00020.
- ^abSzent-Györgyi, Albert (1972-06-02). "Dionysians and Apollonians".Science.176(4038): 966.doi:10.1126/science.176.4038.966.a.ISSN0036-8075.PMID17778411.S2CID239854822.
- ^Paglia, Camille (1990).Sexual Personae: Art and decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson.New York: Vintage Book.ISBN9780300043969.
- ^Paglia (1990), p. 40
- ^Paglia (1990), p. 96
- ^Paglia (1990), p. 100.