In Freidrich Nietzsche’s 19th century work of dramatic theory The Birth of Tragedy he channels the secrets of the universe, revealed to him as whispered echoes from the starless perimeter of space, and manifests them into ink on paper, with the divine importance of a “sermon on the mount”, albeit one that has an abundance of logical foundations. The maddeningly influential charisma behind the work lies in its separate-yet-collective revelatory theories, each of which seem to bridge antiquity and the modern era and decipher the language of the brilliant dead into a translation that greatly impacts all that endure its intense intellectual constitution and come out victorious.
In the first 15 chapters of the c.a.-160-page book, Nietzsche defines the classical Athenian tragedy by providing its history through what is literally its birth: the consequence of the collision of the Apollonian worldview and the Dionysian (Apollo, whose name means “the shining one” being the deity of light and ruler over the beautiful illusion of the inner world of fantasy, & Dionysus, the god of drunkenness and celebration, yet also is manifested in music.) Nietzsche describes Apollonian worldview in art as naïve, concerned only with appearances and neither the artist nor the observer could ever be immersed in it, confined only to quiet contemplation. The appearances of the god Apollo were designed to shield man from the innate and all-eclipsing suffering of the world, and this blindness to tragic reality provided comfort to man. With the arrival of Dionysus into the minds of the Apollonian man of Greek culture, the superficial, visual nature of sculpture (appearances, focused on perfection) they had practiced as injected with the Dionysian essence of Primordial Unity (a concept that would later give birth to the theory of the Universal Mind) as a means of redemption from the eternal, innate suffering of the world. Nowhere is this redemptive knowledge of suffering and drunken, connective blending of souls more apparent than in the wordless gift of music. Through Dionysian immersion, it was revealed to man that he was more than a limited existence based on his individual experiences, but was a part of the Primordial Unity, the eternal universal mind and reincarnation cycle. Because the Dionysian essence is eternal, and represents eternal rebirth, those who believe in it are given a new source of life and hope. Legend has it that the in the mind of pre-industrialized antiquity, the reason that Apollonian artists were as naïve and blind to suffering as they were, is because the nature of their art can be physically manifested for eternity, if desired, in the form of palpable, concrete art forms such as statues. Dionysian artists, on the other hands, in their purest form (music) could not make the suffering they represented and translated concrete, as no recording technology existed, so the only method to continue to emote suffering through Dionysian art was the repetition of musical compositions. In short, Apollonian art was visible, and unless destroyed, remained; while Dionysian art, was unable to be disconnected from the artist, ensuring their near-constant suffering, through channeling Dionysus, representing the detachment of Apollonian create-and-forget and Dionysian eternal re-echoing of pain through their songs.
The result of the marriage of these two forces (tragedy) is seen on multiple levels; the most literal of these that tragedy (in theatre) is the culmination of the knowledge of sheltered bliss, juxtaposed with the knowledge of eternal suffering: there must be a period of heightened bliss followed by the innate suffering in the world and then death. Another conceptualization of Apollonian/Dionysian marriage is the birth of Greek theatre in general. While the Apollonian aspect focuses on what is shown, highlighting physical perfection (in terms of planned, visually conceptive art), while the Dionysian aspect focuses on what is heard (music) and how the music is the true language of suffering. Together they create theatre, tragic and spiritual, and intertwine the essences of Dionysus and Apollo.
In the latter 10 chapters of the book, Nietzsche applies the figures of Dionysus and Apollo to life in his time period, or any other. He compels his reader to ally himself with the essence of Dionysus, in contrast with the “salvation” offered by Christianity, which demands that man abandon and recount his earthly life altogether and concern himself only with Heaven, while salvation the Dionysus requires self immersion in life now. Nietzsche explains that salvation is only possible through Dionysus; the presence of Apollo is the light by which the essence of Dionysus and the door to eternal life is found. To define the roles of the entities in theatre, Nietzsche theorizes that the chorus and actors of tragedy were the manifestations of and the voice though which Dionysus could speak. This allowed man to experience the joys of redemption from suffering. This role of the actor directly translates to what it means to be a Dionysian figure. Apollonian appearances (the physical beings through which Dionysus spoke) foiled the chaos of Dionysus and creating his magnetism and charisma, though it was only the intertwined nature of the two that yielded true tragic art. Music, a nonverbal art form allows man to transcend individual consciousness and enter into the realm of the Universal Mind; making it the superior art form because it does not represent a phenomenon, but divinity and worldly will itself.
Nietzsche blames Euripides (the latter of the last 3 great classical Athenian tragedians), for what he considers the murder of true tragic art. He identifies Euripides as the catalyst that introduced the Socratic obsession with knowledge and ultimate trust in human thought into the theatre, and the singularity of the individual slaughtered the musical element that defines the Dionysian experience. Nietzsche quite literally declares that Euripides “threw Dionysus out of tragedy”, destroying the balance between the two that is so fundamental to art. He also names Wagner, a German composer of the time as beginning what he believes to be necessary and impending transformation of including Dionysus in daily life and reverting to the rebirth of the Dionysian essence.
The most interesting and far-reaching aspect of the work of dramatic theory are its social and philosophical implications and applications today. To define oneself as “Dionysian”, means to reference the entire philosophy and wrap it around one’s actions and lifestyles, conjuring ghastly resemblances that either motivate or demoralize the subject. Because Dionysus represents the innate knowledge of suffering, which would be nothing without the presence of Apollonian naivety, an individual that takes his audience, lovers, and friends to Heaven by showing them Hell is said to possess a Dionysian element. More perfectly, an individual who achieves those ends, whose life results in a pure manifestation of the previously defined “perfect classical Athenian tragedy”, is said to be Dionysian. Most perfectly, an individual with a life that results in certain and beautiful tragedy, who achieves those ends through the use of the Dionysian realm of art, meaning the marriage of the Dionysian “voice”(acting, theatrics) and pure Dionysian art (music),wandering down the shamanistic “road of excess” to the “palace of wisdom” described by Blake, and reminds humanity of the alternative to Christian conditional and exclusionary salvation, in the salvation through tragedy and Dionysian essence – the primordial re-echoing of pain, and the entrance into the infinite spiritual communal entity known as the Universal Mind. These “Dionysian” figures have included poets, and musical artists that use Dionysian voice, their Dionysian poetry (poetry that aims for Dionysian goals, in terms of mass instruction and introduction) and the purest form of Dionysian art: the wordless volumes of wisdom that can be translated through the ages from the depths of suffering to fall on the ears of the Apollonian world – music
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