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Questions to Consider

1. Who or what is the deity Apollo?

2. Who or what is the deity Dionysus?

3. Why does great art need both deities?

4. What happens when one God dominates too much?

5. How does Nietzsche describe the ideal relationship between Dionysus and Apollo?

6. How does Nietzsche anticipate the later findings of cultural anthropology?

7. What does Nietzsche have to say about naïve art or the naïve in art?

8. How does great literature work for Nietzsche?

9. What does Nietzsche mean by the term individuation?

10. What, for Nietzsche, was the supreme achievement of the Hellenic (Greek) world?

11. What is the “artistic double drive” in nature and what is its ideal type?

12. What is the significance of the traditional folk song?

13. What is Will and how does it relate to music?

14. Why is the tragic chorus of Greek drama such an important foundation stone for true art and culture in the Nietzschean sense?

15. What characteristic of the Greek chorus does Nietzsche find particularly fascinating?

16. What is the significance of suffering in Greek tragedy?

17. What is the relationship between passivity and activity in Greek drama?

18. What ethical principle can we take from Greek tragedy?

19. What ethical principles are missing from Greek tragedy?

20. What is the significance of Euripides’ transformation of Greek drama?

21. Why couldn’t Euripides build a new dramatic tradition by focusing solely on Apolline principles?

22. What is the limitation of aesthetic Socratism?

23. Why does Nietzsche call Euripides the sober poet?

24. How did Socrates take a hammer to the old tradition?

25. What way of knowing could never have happened without Socrates?

26. Why have all later civilizations tended to free themselves, often “with deep feelings of anger”, from the Greeks?

27. What other important development stemmed from the forceful dismantling of the Apolline and Dionysiac principles?

28. What is the sole continuing activity that preserves some semblance of the Apolline-Dionysiac synthesis?

29. What is the dilemma and limitation of modern western (i.e. Alexandrian) culture?

30. What characteristic of Alexandrian culture is leading it towards catastrophe, according to Nietzsche?

31. Does Nietzsche present us with any alternatives to the tragedy of modern culture?

32. What makes Nietzsche think that a new synthesis will be forthcoming?

33. What does Nietzsche think must be the handmaiden or mid-wife to this new synthesis if it is to have any chance of succeeding?

34. How are great music and great tragedy similar?

35. What does Nietzsche mean when he suggests that we need to “run-up and vault into a metaphysics of art?”

36. How does Nietzsche define “man” in the conclusion to The Birth of Tragedy?

Possible Answers

1. Apollo is the God of image making or artistic creation. He creates semblances of things in the form of art. Thus, he represents all those with artistic sensibility. Nietzsche also refers to him as the god of dreams, because he governs the world of inner fantasy and inspiration, which is the world of dreams. Apollo is a civilized god because he represents the search for higher truth and gives meaning to the human condition.

2. Dionysus is the God of intoxication, which does not mean being drunk but being able to achieve the “blissful ecstasy” of a complete, primal and mystical identification, both with nature and human nature. This god reflects a lust for life. He is found most often in music (especially hymns and folk songs that are closer to the origin of man), trances, dancing. He reflects our need to reconnect with our primal nature; thus he is more the discoverer of art in man rather than man as artistic creator.

3. Dionysus affirms life and human nature but is insufficient unless mediated by the Apollonian artist. Unstructured Dionysus will always tend towards uncivilized extremes in the form of sensuality, cruelty, and horror. When tamed by Apollo, however, Dionysus defines, reforms, shapes and unifies these extremes in ways that are the essence of civilization. Beethoven’s Ode to Joy (9^th Symphony) is a good example of this blending that is found in all great art.

4. When Dionysus dominates, there is too much of a tendency towards barbarism and primitivism. When Apollo dominates, art becomes too refined and abstract, losing its ability to affirm human life and our unity to nature.

5. Dionysus is the foundation on which Apolline culture is built stone by stone. The civilized world looks very Apollonian. When we look at Greek civilization and estimate its greatness, we tend to emphasize its Apollonian characteristics. But without a Dionysiac foundation, this serene existence always tends towards decay and self-destruction.

6. Nietzsche focuses our attention on popular culture — the foundations of culture in earlier societies — upon which the “Olympian magic mountain” was built. He disapproves of those who dismiss the primitive and primal forms of culture as backward and to be overcome. The beauty of primitive culture and popular wisdom is its closer connection to nature and our sense of humankind.

7. The ability to bring naivete into the heart of culture is necessary to create sublime art and literature. Properly realized the artistic existence of naivete enthralls us and elevates us to new levels of awareness. An example of someone who has the naïve character is Homer; it is also present in early Greek tragedy, and, in particular, in the Greek chorus, which strikes us moderns as unusual.

8. Great literature begins by recognized the “all-powerful artistic drives in nature” and of our “fervent longing” to give them a shape. By giving them an Apollonian shape or semblance, we “redeem and release” these emotions in ways that give a deeper meaning to life. We transcend the suffering that is obvious in human life while glimpsing something of the eternal. This process of release and redemption is seen best in tragedy and helps to explain the cathartic experience that we have when we are spectators to great tragedy.

9. Individuation is the Apolline shaping of meaning and giving of significance, which presumes (and develops) the individual and the individualistic viewpoint. In philosophy, it is the dictum to Know Thyself. In art it is the unique vision captured by the artist. Without individuation, civilization would be inconceivable. Our thinking would be too primal and tribal. But, unless the Apollonian mind lives in harmony with Dionysus, its civilization loses touch with our original natures that incline towards unity, ecstasy and “self-oblivion”/”transcendence”.

10. The Greeks were able to balance the extremes of Apollo and Dionysus, subject and object, fierce will and peaceful contemplation, aesthetic and non-aesthetic states. This balancing act also allowed the Hellenes to infuse life with art, because art became the essential definition of life lived. The later Greeks and Western civilization generally moved further and further away from Dionysus by emphasizing man’s individualistic and creative power, eventually replacing the hegemony of art with that of science, and loosing sight of the nature and function of art in civilization.

11. It is the blending of the primal unity of Dionysus with the creative dreams of Apollo. In other words, it is Dionysus shaped by Apollo, and Apollo supported by Dionysus. Nietzsche believes that the ideal form of this conjunction is the folk song, which blends the primal thrust of melody with the refinements of poetry.

12. For Nietzsche, the folk song is the art form that mirrors the Dionysiac mood most closely in terms of: 1) a melody that reveals primal energy, and 2) lyrics that strain to imitate the music. Folk music, especially when using the flute, can inspire drunken enthusiasm, love and fellow feeling. This is the music of “a youthfully fresh, linguistically creative mass of people.” Nietzsche here is making a case that is similar to that of composers like Bartok, who began to integrate folk elements into their music in order to make it less artificial and closer to the source of primal inspiration. This marked a shift from the Enlightened approach to music that stressed structure, elegance and even a mathematical structure. The folk element twists tempo with sudden changes that do not conform to the enlightened emphasis on structure, harmony and parallelism.

13. Will is the creation of human meaning through relevant images and concepts. It is the Apollonian shaping of our original passions, longing, and forceful identification with life. For Nietzsche, when music strays too far from its Dionysiac origins in Apollonian contemplation, it negates Will. It is important to appreciate the complexity of Nietzsche’s interpretation of musical forms here. He is not denying the Apollonian impulse but wants to keep the connection between primordial unity and artistic creation. Apollonian music and poetry can never completely capture or “eternalize the innermost depths of music” and, as literature and art develops, it always runs the risk of moving too far away from original inspiration. When art moves too far away from the “original pain (and pleasure) of the heart” it begins to negate what is most essential in the human condition and the artistic expression of that condition. In other words, it denies life.

14. The Greek chorus integrated the Dionysiac impulse in the form of a fictitious state of nature. In this Dionysiac chorus, the satyr or nature god lives on and acts as a comment on the over refined, individualistic, and artificial actions of men and women in society. It is the realm of poetic freedom. It is the chorus that gives Attic drama its particular character, as going beyond civilization. It is also the original foundation of the feelings of unity and “metaphysical solace” that we always derive from “true tragedy.” In order to advance this fascinating claim, Nietzsche needed to show that the Greek chorus could never be defined as an ideal spectator or political commentary on the action. Such interpretations would constrict the role and significance of the chorus, which, in its true nature, is beyond particular social realities.

15. Its ability to force “an entire mass of people” to step out of their particular realities and to view the dramatic action with the eyes of the artist or of spirits. By pushing us out of our customary roles as individual social actors, the Greek chorus “magically transforms” the audience into a group who view life through the eyes of the artist. When thus momentarily transformed, the audience forgets “their civic past and their social position; they have become timeless…”. This is a precondition for enchantment, which revitalizes life and restores our original connection. When we dissolve in enchantment, we emerge more clear-eyed. We are, in fact, “born anew”. Once reborn, the Apolline part of Greek tragedy is reconstructed into something more simple, transparent and beautiful.

16. Greek tragedy recognizes suffering or pain as an essential component of the human condition. At the same time, true tragedy transforms suffering and elevates it into an “eternal transfiguration.” The hero suffers in Greek tragedy and the audience along with him/her. In everyday life, we fight suffering. But, in Greek tragedy, the chorus encourages us to momentarily be passive in the face of suffering in order to achieve the kind of serenity that comes from acceptance. Nietzsche refers to this beautifully as “healing nature after we have gazed into the abyss.”

17. Both are glorious. Prometheus fights and suffers to impose his will on the gods. Heroes are invariably indomitable and characterized by their boldness. But our human actions often lead us into a “dark sea of sadness.” The only way to achieve a human balance is to understand that humans must both act and accept the consequences of their actions.

18. “All that exists is just and unjust and is equally justified in both respects.” One needs to understand that human beings have the Will to right wrongs and to shape the world to meet their idea of the good. One also needs to understand that both the individual and the communal Will reflect hubris and arrogance in trying to impose their images on eternal nature. The conflict that ensues is the major source of human suffering. But that same suffering is what dignifies human nature.

19. Christian ethics focus on suffering leading to redemption. But by attempting to constantly label and transcend evil, Christians fail to understand that good and evil are a unified whole. Also, a great deal of what Christianity calls evil relates to the natural human desire to impose our Will in the form of culture and civilization. Thus, Christianity denies the lived human life and refocuses attention on the afterlife. Christianity, for Nietzsche, is an artificial, abstract and dogmatic religion too far removed from the mythical unities of religion in youthful societies.

20. Euripides transformed Greek drama by making it conform more closely to the realities of everyday life and people. He introduced the principle of realism to drama but, in the process, weakened its mythical structure and Apollonian-Dionysiac balance. In Nietzsche’s terminology, Euripides brought the real life spectator onto the stage and into the Greek chorus. Once that happened, it was no longer possible to affirm the original artistic impulse and principles inherent in Attic drama. Drama became increasingly removed from the world of timeless identification with nature and human nature. The entire point of the Greek chorus was to challenge individuation; Euripides made it the new principle of literary representation. Thus, ended the brilliant synthesis of “two interwoven artistic drives, the Apolline and the Dionysiac.” Dionysus virtually ceased to exist at all after this. Empirical semblance replaced mythical significance as Euripides dethroned tradition and the gods.

21. Put simply, Apollo needs Dionysus to produce great art. In Nietzsche’s terminology, without Dionysus, Apollo cannot be “dipped in the ether of art.” Solo, it has a tendency to deteriorate into mechanical cleverness of aesthetic Socratism.

22. Aesthetic Socratism puts the emphasis on knowledge. It loses the original artistic impulse of earlier literature. Its ultimate manifestations are reason and order, and it leads to a scientism that controls and negates both nature and human nature.

23. Because Euripides consciously discounted and mocked the drunken poets whose impulse was fundamentally Dionysiac. While he led art out of its often chaotic, primal soup”, the price was the lost of mystic identification. The mystical now became the refuge of cults.

24. Socrates and his student Plato attacked the artistic and poetic impulse at is source, by arguing that poetic imagery misleads us in the search for truth. Poets, for example, are banned from Plato’s ideal republic because they describe things that cannot be fully down to the conscious mind. For Socrates, something must be “conscious in order to be beautiful.” Nietzsche believed that Socrates and Euripides “murdered” the traditional synthesis.

25. Science would not exist without Socrates emphasis on the rationalistic impulse.

26. Because they realize that, in comparison with Greek civilization at its height, their achievements are puny and barbaric.

27. The fragmentation of art and scholarship into competing schools of thought.

28. Music. At this time, before his break with the composer, Nietzsche found potential in the new romanticism in the music of Richard Wagner.

29. It’s ideal is the theoretical man “working in the service of science, whose archetype and progenitor is Socrates.” His literary symbol is Goethe’s Faust who attacks nature with a desire to know, to understand, and control its forces.

30. Its boundless optimism, which fails to appreciate the ultimate futility of the human condition and the significance/dignity of human suffering. As mankind begins to recognize that knowledge is limited and conditional, the claims of science will evaporate. But no alternative culture will be available to replace this “arrogant delusion” because Socrates and his followers have murdered the traditional synthesis.

31. He suggests an artistic and philosophical movement away from the “seductive distractions of the sciences towards an “unmoved gaze on the total image of the world, and in this image it seeks to embrace eternal suffering with sympathetic feelings of love, acknowledging that suffering to be its own.” Here, Nietzsche is moving towards a new philosophy of the U”bermensch or superman who have the heroism to turn their backs on “all the enfeebled doctrines of scientific optimism so that they may ‘live resolutely’. Wholly and fully.”

32. Nietzsche, like many fin de siecle thinkers, points to: 1) the illogicality of a belief in scientific progress, and 2) the extreme fragmentation and cultural despair of modern life. These will push people, especially those with strong creative wills, to create new ways of understanding and moving forward.

33. Music, but not operatic music in its present configuration, which is merely a popular affirmation of the theoretical man and typically bereft of a genuine artistic impulse. Nietzsche calls it “the layman on the musical stage.” In particular, opera is so relentlessly optimistic that it denies the eternal truth of human suffering.

34. They are inseparable, as in the Greek chorus. Both express the Dionysiac “capacity of people.” Both are magical in the sense that they can justify, submerge and transcend any aspect of existence, the harmonies and the dissonances of life.

35. He means that only by immersing ourselves in the “aesthetic phenomena” of great art will we be able to unit good and evil, the ugly and the disharmonious in order to understand the “primal pleasure” of the Dionysiac impulse, “even in pain”.

36. Man is “dissonance assuming a human form.” Unless this dissonance is mirrored in culture, life will eventually lose all genuine vigor and significance. The two greatest cultural movements of modern life, Science and Christianity, have failed to appreciate this fundamental truth. The first becomes a victim of its own unrealistic enthusiasm while the latter forces us to wait to experience our essence in the afterlife.