scholarly journals Apollonian and Dionysian: the Life and Fate of a Famous Metaphor

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-61
Author(s):  
Oleg A. Matveychev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Birth Of Tragedy

The article examines the genesis, development and historical fate of the famous Nietzschean antithesis “Apollonian and Dionysian”. The content and consequences of the discussion on the “Birth of Tragedy” by F. Nietzsche between U. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and E. Rohde are analyzed. The heuristic potential of this metaphor is evaluated. The author draws attention to the fact that the opposition between the “cult of Apollo” and “the cult of Dionysus” was never practiced in Ancient Greece itself. At the same time, Nietzsche's scheme turned out to be extremely long lived; not only for numerous writers and publicists, but also for scientists of various specializations who used it liberally.

Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk and Nietzsche’s Vision of Ancient Greek Theatre

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Fischer-Lichte
Keyword(s):  
Greek Tragedy ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
The Future ◽  
Birth Of Tragedy ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Of Greece

Chapter 3 deals with ‘Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk and Nietzsche’s Vision of Ancient Greek Theatre’ with regard to the emergence of a new image of ancient Greece that would rival the Winckelmannian image from that point on. Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk is described as an attempt not to return to ancient Greece but to revive ancient Greek theatre by taking into account the conditions of the modern world, as Nietzsche similarly interpreted it in his treatise The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music (1872). The truly revolutionary aspects of the image of Greece as developed in this treatise are examined. While Winckelmann only considered the Apollonian side of Greek culture and art, Nietzsche complemented it by focusing on its Dionysian side, thus opening up an absolutely novel approach to Greek tragedy for the future.

The Sober Bacchae: Dance as Phenomenal Limitation in Nietzsche

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Monique Lyle
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
The Body ◽  
Specific Function ◽  
Alain Badiou ◽  
Classical Greece ◽  
Birth Of Tragedy

This essay seeks to dispel entrenched critical opinion regarding dance across Nietzsche's writings as representative of Dionysian intoxication alone. Taking as its prompt the riposte of Alain Badiou, ‘Nietzsche is miles away from any doctrine of dance as a primitive ecstasy’ and ‘dance is in no way the liberated bodily impulse, the wild energy of the body’, the essay uncovers the ties between dance and Apollo in the Nietzschean theory of art while qualifying dance's relation to Dionysus. Primarily through an analysis of The Dionysiac World View and The Birth of Tragedy, the essay seeks to illuminate enigmatic statements about dance in Nietzsche (‘in dance the greatest strength is only potential, although it is betrayed by the suppleness of movement’ and ‘dance is the preservation of orderly measure’). It does this through an elucidation of the specific function of dance in Nietzsche's interpretation of classical Greece; via an assessment of the difficulties associated with the Nietzschean understanding of the bacchanal; and lastly through an analysis of Nietzsche's characterization of dance as a symbol. The essay culminates in a discussion of dance's ties to Nietzschean life affirmation; here the themes of physico-phenomenal existence, joy and illusion in Nietzsche are surveyed.

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt A. Raaflaub ◽  
Josiah Ober ◽  
Robert Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece
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