Apollonian and Dionysian

The Apollonian and Dionysian is a philosophical and literary concept and

dichotomy/dialectic, based on Apollo and Dionysus in Greek mythology. Some
Western philosophical and literary figures have invoked this dichotomy in critical
and creative works, most notablyFriedrich Nietzsche and later followers.

In Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus are both sons of Zeus. Apollo is the god
of the sun, of rational thinking and order, and appeals to logic, prudence and purity.
Dionysus is the god of wine and dance, of irrationality and chaos, and appeals to
emotions and instincts. The Ancient Greeks did not consider the two gods to be Apollo killing Tityos
opposites or rivals, although often the 2 deities were entwined by nature.

Contents
Nietzsche's version
Other viewpoints
Post-modern reading
Ruth Benedict
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Camille Paglia
See also
References

Nietzsche's version
Although the use of the concepts of the Apollonian and Dionysian is linked to Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, the terms were used
before him in German culture.[1] The poet Hölderlin spoke of them, while Winckelmann talked of Bacchus, the god of wine. After
Nietzsche, others have continued to make use of the distinction. For example, Rudolf Steiner treated in depth the Apollonian and
Dionysian and placed them in the general history and spiritual evolution of mankind.

Nietzsche's aesthetic usage of the concepts, which was latter developed philosophically, first appeared in his 1872 book The Birth of
Tragedy. His major premise here was that the fusion of Dionysian and Apollonian "Kunsttriebe" ("artistic impulses") form dramatic
arts, or tragedies. He goes on to argue that this fusion has not been achieved since the ancient Greek tragedians. Nietzsche is adamant
that the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles represent the apex of artistic creation, the true realization of tragedy; it is with Euripides
that tragedy begins its downfall ("Untergang"). Nietzsche objects to Euripides's use of Socratic rationalism (the dialectic) in his
tragedies, claiming that the infusion of ethics and reason robs tragedy of its foundation, namely the fragile balance of the Dionysian
and Apollonian.

To further the split, Nietzsche diagnoses the Socratic Dialectic as being diseased in the manner that it deals with looking at life. The
scholarly dialectic is directly opposed to the concept of the Dionysian because it only seeks to negate life; it uses reason to always
deflect, but never to create. Socrates rejects the intrinsic value of the senses and life for "higher" ideals. Nietzsche claims in The Gay
Science that when Socrates drinks the hemlock, he sees the hemlock as the cure for life, proclaiming that he has been sick a long
time. (Section 340.) In contrast, the Dionysian existence constantly seeks to affirm life. Whether in pain or pleasure, suffering or joy,
the intoxicating revelry that Dionysus has for life itself overcomes the Socratic sickness and perpetuates the growth and flourishing of
visceral life force—a great Dionysian 'Y
es', to a Socratic 'No'.
The interplay between the Apollonian and Dionysian is apparent, Nietzsche
claimed in The Birth of Tragedy, from their use in Greek tragedy: the tragic hero of
the drama, the main protagonist, struggles to make order of his unjust fate, though
he dies unfulfilled in the end. For the audience of such a drama, Nietzsche
claimed, this tragedy allows them to sense an underlying essence, what he called
the "Primordial Unity", which revives our Dionysian nature—which is almost
indescribably pleasurable. However, he later dropped this concept saying it was
"...burdened with all the errors of youth" (Attempt at Self-Criticism, §2), the
overarching theme was a sort of metaphysical solace or connection with the heart
of creation.

Different from Immanuel Kant's idea of the sublime, the Dionysian is all-inclusive
rather than alienating to the viewer as a sublimating experience. The sublime
needs critical distance, while the Dionysian demands a closeness of experience.
According to Nietzsche, the critical distance, which separates man from his closest
emotions, originates in Apollonian ideals, which in turn separate him from his
essential connection with self. The Dionysian embraces the chaotic nature of such
experience as all-important; not just on its own, but as it is intimately connected Lekythos Dionysus between Maenads
with the Apollonian. The Dionysian magnifies man, but only so far as he realizes and Sileni and a Seated Man between
that he is one and the same with all ordered human experience. The godlike unity Women and Men

of the Dionysian experience is of utmost importance in viewing the Dionysian as it

is related to the Apollonian, because it emphasizes the harmony that can be found
within one's chaotic experience.

Other viewpoints

Post-modern reading
Nietzsche's idea has been interpreted as an expression of fragmented consciousness or existential instability by a variety of modern
and post-modern writers, especially Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze.[2][3] According to Peter Sloterdijk, the
Dionysian and the Apollonian form a dialectic; they are contrasting, but Nietzsche does not mean one to be valued more than the
other.[4] Truth being primordial 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,
[5]
Abraham Akkerman has pointed to masculine and feminine features of city form.

Ruth Benedict
Anthropologist Ruth Benedict used 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 the Zuñi people as opposed
to the Dionysian Kwakiutl people.[6] The theme was developed by Benedict in her main workPatterns of Culture.

Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi, who wrote that "a discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge",[7] 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".[7]
Camille Paglia
American humanities scholar Camille Paglia writes about the Apollonian and Dionysian in her 1990 bestseller Sexual Personae.[8]
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 and chthonic (she prefers Chthonic to Dionysian throughout
the book, arguing that the latter concept has become all but synonymous with hedonism and 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
[9]
with the goal of oriented progress: "Everything great in western civilization comes from struggle against our origins".

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 higher cortex and the older limbic and reptilian brains".[10] 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 (including asexual and homosexual men; and childless and/or lesbian-leaning women) in science, literature, arts,
technology and politics. As an example, Paglia states: "The male orientation of classical Athens was inseparable from its genius.
[11]
Athens became great not despite but because of its misogyny".

See also
"Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres", a song by Canadian rock bandRush based in part on the concept.
Extropianism, an extension of the Apollonian philosophy

References
1. Adrian Del Caro, "Dionysian Classicism, or Nietzsche's Appropriation of an Aesthetic Norm (https://www.jstor.org/sta
ble/2709799)", in Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1989), pp. 589–605 (in English)
2. Michael, Drolet (2004).The Postmodernism Reader(https://books.google.com/books?id=AeNOhsRjzrcC)
.
ISBN 9780415160841.
3. Postmodernism and the re-reading of modernity By Francis Barker
, Peter Hulme, Margaret Iversen, Manchester
University Press,1992,ISBN 978-0-7190-3745-0 p. 258
4. Thinker on Stage: Nietzsche's Materialism, translation by Jamie Owen Daniel; foreword by Jochen Schulte-Sasse,
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1989.ISBN 0-8166-1765-1
5. Akkerman, Abraham (2006)."Femininity and Masculinity in City-Form: Philosophical Urbanism as a History of
Consciousness" (http://www.springerlink.com/content/9337128m117q48k2/). Human Studies. 29 (2): 229–256.
doi:10.1007/s10746-006-9019-4(https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10746-006-9019-4) .
6. Benedict, Ruth (January 1932). "Configurations of Culture in North America".
American Anthropologist. 34 (1): 1–27.
doi:10.1525/aa.1932.34.1.02a00020(https://doi.org/10.1525%2Faa.1932.34.1.02a00020) .
7. Szent-Györgyi, Albert (1972-06-02)."Dionysians and Apollonians"(http://science.sciencemag.org/content/176/4038/
966.1). Science. 176 (4038): 966. doi:10.1126/science.176.4038.966(https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.176.4038.
966). ISSN 0036-8075 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0036-8075). PMID 17778411 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu
bmed/17778411).
8. Paglia, Camille (1990).Sexual Personae: Art and decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
. New York: Vintage
Book. ISBN 9780300043969.
9. Paglia (1990), p. 40
10. Paglia (1990), p. 96
11. Paglia (1990), p. 100.
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