Greg Detre
Sunday, 21 January, 2001
The crucial dichotomy of the book is between the Apolline/Apollonian and Dionysiac/Dionysian. This duality is not a simple opposition � rather, both are integral to tragedy, and there is no distinct positive-negative polarisation. The names derive from Apollo and Dionysius, the two gods of art in the Greek pantheon. Apollo is the sun god while Dionysius is the god of wine??? Nietzsche contrasts them along a variety of different lines. The Apolline includes visual art and drama, while the Dionysiac includes music (especially harmonic/medolic, and excluding rhythmic music) and poetry (though he later regrets this over-simplified genre categorisation).
Unlike his later works, Nietzsche displays a deep respect for both Schopenhauer and Wagner, quoting and referring to their major works (�The world as will and representation�, �Tristran and Isolde�). He adopts the Kantian distinction between the world of appearances and an underlying world, corresponding to the Apolline and Dionysiac respectively. Attic tragedy set to music combines both, with art heralded as the supreme metaphysic and only bearable and consoling access to the unendurable truth.
In this section, written much later than the original book, Nietzsche looks back rather disgustedly on his work.