OPPapers.com

Apollonian And Dionysian

The Apollonian and Dionysian man complete each other in the sense that these two

terms create our society. The Apollonian man was given its name from Apollo, the sun-

god. He represents light, clarity, and form. The Dionysian man was given its name from

the Greek god Dionysus. As the wine-god, he represents drunkenness and ecstasy. The

Dionysian was the primal aspect of reality, as well as raw nature, life and death, pleasure

and pain, desire, passion, sex, and aggression. It is the source of primal instincts. "The

Dionysian with its primal pleasure-experienced even in pain- is the common womb of

music and tragic myth...the Apolline is the realm of dreams and ideal forms."("The Birth of

Tragedy" Nietzsche, 1871) The Apollonian is the humanized aspect of reality, civilization,

harmony, and balance. It follows order, form, status, peace, moderation, permanence,

symbolism, language, and reason. In modern psychological terms it is the Ego and

Superego. The complexities of the Dionysian person verses the Apollonian person will be

explored using Robert Johnson's Ecstasy.

The Dionysian name emphazing the irrational element of frenzy was found in the

rites of Dionysus. This book explores the nature of ecstasy through the myth of Dionysus.

In ancient Greece, Dionysus was the god of wine and ecstasy. "The myth of Dionysus is a

picture of the forces, behaviors, and instincts that shape our inner world. He is a complex

figure who symbolizes the irrational world of our senses as it interacts with the rational

world of rules and limitations."(Johnson, 11)

Zeus, in disguise, traveled on earth and came upon the city of Thebes. He fell

hopelessly in love with Semele, the daughter of King Cadmus. She became pregnant and

wanted to look into the eyes of her lover. She asked Zeus to grant her a boon. He made

an oath with the River of Styx. This oath exclaimed she could have...