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Prophet for the Rebirth of Dionysus
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Nietzsche hoped, that through his work,
Dionysus, the god of life's exuberance, would replace Jesus, the
god of the heavenly other world, as the premier cultural standard
for future millennia. |
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Worshippers of Dionysus considered that the squeezing of the
juice from the grape to make wine symbolized the soul leaving
the body. |
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 Plutarch, one Greece's most influential
scribes for later generations, was also the priest of Delphi
who first wrote of the divine
tension between the two deities. Dionysos presided over the oracle for three
winter months, beginning in November, with the rising of the
Pleiades, while Apollo was away visiting the Nordic Hyperboreans. A
nighttime rite known as the "Dance of the Fiery Stars" was
performed during these three cold, dead winter months on
the
slopes of Parnassus. |
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"Men do not
know how that which is drawn in different
directions harmonises with itself. The
harmonious structure of the world depends
upon opposite tension like that of the bow
and the lyre."
Heraclitus
(535 - 475
BC), |
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The Bible
has come under fire for making woman the
fall guy in man's cosmic drama. But in
casting a male conspirator, the serpent, as
God's enemy, Genesis hedges and does not
take its misogyny far enough. The Bible
defensively swerves from God's true
opponent, chthonian nature. The serpent is
not outside Eve but in her. She is the
garden and the serpent.
Camille Paglia
Sexual Personae |
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Transparent
to the Transcendent |
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"In addition to transcendence experienced
through ritual, a second transcendence of
life is described as a spontaneous, ecstatic
or visionary experience of mystery without
the aid of ritual. Nietzsche's Noontide
Vision is discussed as a classic example of
this type of transformation: in the myth of
Dionysus-Zagreus, who was dismembered and
returned to life, the Deity appears in
the noon hour, sacred to Pan; Nietzche's
reaction is as though he had been present at
a ritual. It is cautioned that these are
more esthetic forms of experience, like
dreams which have no lasting effect on the
dreamer, and that they must be distinguished
from those visions which involve permanent
change in the individual."
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CW v. 9.1: The Archetypes and the
Collective Unconscious (p. 118
Collected Works of C.G. Jung
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Statue of Dionysus, recovered
from the bed of the Tiber River (Italy) during works
on a pillar of the Garibaldi Bridge in 1885. Bronze, lost wax
fusion, height 158 cm. Museo Nazionale Romano,
Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme,
The statue represents a naked Dionysus of a juvenile
type, resting on the right leg, the left one being
markedly flexed and resting on the forefoot, and the
left arm holding a tyrsos, the traditional attribute
of the god. |
"Apollo Belvedere" Roman
marble adaptation of a C4th BC Greek cult statue
attributed to Leokhares h. 2.24 m (7 ft) Pio
Clementino Museum, Vatican
"He is the very embodiment of
the Hellenic spirit. Everything that marks off the
Greek outlook from that of other peoples, and in
particular from the barbarians who surrounded
them; beauty of every sort, whether of art, music,
poetry or youth, sanity and moderation; are all
summed up in Apollo.
W.K. Guthrie The Greeks and Their
Gods |
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"Dionysic stirring arise
either through the influence of those narcotic potions of which
all primitive races speak in their hymns, or through the
powerful approach of spring, which penetrates with joy the whole
frame of nature. So stirred the individual forgets himself
completely... for a brief moment we become ourselves, the primal
Being, and we experience its insatiable hunger for existence.
Now we see the struggle, the pain, the destruction of
appearances, as necessary, because of the constant proliferation
of forms pushing into life, because of the extravagant fecundity
of the world will. We feel the furious prodding of this travail
in the very moment in which we become one with the immense lust
for life and are made aware of the eternity
and indestructibility of that lust."
Friedrich Nietzsche in 1882.
Born October 15, 1844
Röcken, Saxony, Prussia
Died August 25, 1900
Weimar, Germany |
Nietzsche was the son and grandson of
Lutheran ministers
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"We should be surprised that
a matter that generally plays such an important part in the life
of man [love] has hitherto been almost entirely disregarded by
philosophers, and lies before us as raw and untreated material."
Schopenhauer |
and raised in a small German town
with an early interest in German philosopher Arthur
Schopenhauer(1788 -1860)
Nietzsche's first book was
published in 1872: The Birth of Tragedy, Out of the Spirit of Music
(Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik) views
non-rational forces as residing at the foundation of all creativity and
of reality itself, identified a strongly instinctual, wild, amoral,
"Dionysian" energy within pre-Socratic Greek culture as an essentially
creative and healthy force. Surveying the history of Western culture
since the time of the Greeks, Nietzsche lamented over how this
"Dionysian," creative energy had been submerged and weakened as it
became overshadowed by the "Apollonian" forces of logical order and
stiff sobriety. He concluded that European culture since the time of
Socrates had remained one-sidedly Apollonian and relatively unhealthy.
Apollonian and Dionysian
are terms used by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy to
designate the two central principles in Greek culture. The Apollonian,
which corresponds to Schopenhauer's principium individuationis
("principle of individuation"), is the basis of all analytic
distinctions. Everything that is part of the unique individuality of man
or thing is Apollonian in character; all types of form or structure are
Apollonian, since form serves to define or individualize that which is
formed; thus, sculpture is the most Apollonian of the arts, since it
relies entirely on form for its effect.
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...this time however I come as
the victorious Dionysus, who will turn the world into a
holiday...Not that I have much time..."
- (from
Nietzsche last
"insane" letter to Cosima Wagner) |
Rational thought is also
Apollonian since it is structured and makes distinctions.
The Dionysian, which
corresponds roughly to Schopenhauer's conception of Will, is
directly opposed to the Apollonian. Drunkenness and madness are
Dionysian because they break down a man's individual character; all
forms of enthusiasm and ecstasy are Dionysian, for in such states man
gives up his individuality and submerges himself in a greater whole:
music is the most Dionysian of the arts, since it appeals directly to
man's instinctive, chaotic emotions and not to his formally reasoning
mind.
Nietzsche believed that
both forces were present in Greek tragedy, and that the true tragedy
could only be produced by the tension between them. He used the names
Apollonian and Dionysian for the two forces because Apollo, as the
sun-god, represents light, clarity, and form, whereas Dionysus, as the
wine-god, represents drunkenness and ecstasy. Central to Nietzsche's
philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation," which involves an honest
questioning of all doctrines which drain life's energies, however
socially prevalent those views might be .
"The destiny of death
by burning runs through the stories of Apollo and Dionysus like
a scar. Semele is burned to death, and she is Dionysus's mother;
Coronis and Asclepius are reduced to ashes, and they are
Apollo's lover and son. The divine fire devours those venturing
outside the human sphere, whether they be betraying a god,
bringing a man back to life, or seeing a god bereft of the
cloaking veil of epiphany. Beyond the limit laid down for what
is acceptable, burns the fire. Apollo and Dionysus are often
found along the edges of that borderline, on the divine side and
the human; they provoke that back-and-forth in men, that desire
to go beyond oneself, which we seem to cling to even more than
to our humanity, even more than to life itself. And sometimes
this dangerous game rebounds on the two gods who play it."
(Roberto Calasso. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, pg
59) |
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| The KITHARA,
a plucked string instrument, came to be linked with Apollo, the
god of the Sun and reason, while the AULOS, a loud
double-reed instrument, came to be identified with Dionysus, the
god of wine and ecstatic revelry. The most important of mythic
musicians in ancient Greek culture was ORPHEUS, whose
music had the power to cause inanimate objects to move and even
influence the forces of Hades. |
LINKS
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As a means towards cultural
rebirth,
Nietzsche advocates a resurrection and fuller release of
Dionysian artistic energies -- those which he associated with
primordial creativity, joy in existence and ultimate truth. This
is clearly also the message of Carnaval and any festival
celebrating nature's rebirth in Spring |
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"What is the heaviest thing, ye
heroes? asketh the load-bearing spirit, that I may take it upon
me and rejoice in my strength.
"Is it not this: To
humiliate oneself in order to mortify one's pride? To exhibit
one's folly in order to mock at one's wisdom?
The Three Metamorphoses by Nietzsche |
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CULT IN
AIGINA ISLAND (SOUTHERN GREECE)
"There are three temples close together [in
Aigina], one of Apollon, one of Artemis, and a third of
Dionysos." -Pausanias 2.30.1
[Apollo was the
son of Zeus and the twin brother of Artemis whom the Romans
Called Diana.] |
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For the Greeks of Dionysus and
Apollo's day, maleness was the ideal The primary Greek values -
self-control, order, clarity, rationality, civilization,
struggle against nature, heroic glory, dominance in war were the
values of manliness in ancient Greece. Pushed to the periphery,
are mysterious sacred feminine, leaving nature's creative sparks
to the dark and spinning edge of the world. All that is foreign,
all that is feminine, all that is wild and unrestrained; all
these are coalesced into an idea of Otherness that forms a dark
sea of chaos into which one must strive continually not to fall.
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Apollo teaches us distance, while
Dionysos teaches us proximity, contact, intimacy with ourselves,
nature, and others.
Ginette Paris |
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APOLLO and the great age of
Pisces have ruled for the last 2500 years |
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Apollo and Daphne: Daphne was
Apollo's first love. It was not brought about by
accident, but by the malice of Cupid. Her father, the river
god, transforms the nymph into a laurel tree to escape the
passion of Apollo and fulfill her wish to be like Artemis.
BERNINI, Gian Lorenzo
1622-25(b. 1598, Napoli, d. 1680, Roma)Marble,
height 243 cm
Galleria Borghese, Rome
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Pegasus (the winged
horse)
Apollo were mutual
associates of the muses. Minerva caught and tamed
Pegasus, and presented him to the 9 Muses.
In Roman, Renaissance and Neoclassical art, Muses depicted
in sculptures or paintings are often distinguished by
certain props or poses, as emblems. Euterpe (music)
carries a flute; Calliope (epic poetry) carries a
writing tablet; Clio (history) carries a scroll and
books; Erato (lyric poetry) is often seen with a lyre
and a crown of roses; Melpomene (tragedy) is often
seen with a tragic mask; Polyhymnia (sacred poetry)
is often seen with a pensive expression; Terpsichore
(dancing) is often seen dancing and carrying a lyre;
Thalia (comedy) is often seen with a comic mask; and
Urania (astronomy) carries a staff pointed at a
celestial globe.
In
New Orleans, nine
streets are named after
the Muses.
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