Apollo and Dionysus

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  • #17695
    atreestump
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      The basic concept

      The Apollonian and Dionysian is a philosophical and literary concept, or dichotomy, based on certain features of ancient Greek mythology. Apollo is the god of reason and the rational, while Dionysus is the god of the irrational and chaos. The Greeks did not consider the two gods to be opposites or rivals, although often the two deities were entwined by nature.[1]

      Individuality and Collective

      These two features that are two sides of the same coin have a lot to say regarding creative instincts or drives that either express themselves as individuality, or as part of a transformation of a collective.

      The Greek Chorus in the context of Greek Tragedy, satyr and comedy, refers to homgenous, non-individualised group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action. It is a means of transcending entertainment into a more involved experience between the performers and the audience. The performers would all wear masks, which erased the presence of individuality. The moment the God Dionysus would come onto the stage, would symbolise an everyday relation, an aleithea, or a truthfulness that doesn’t escape notice and can’t be forgotten (disclosure, revelation, revealing). It would be at this point of a Greek tragedy in particular, that the audience and the performers would be one single body and a process of transformation would occur.

      The concept behind that is bought to the front through this device, or technology, is tragedy. Tragedy is more than simply entertainment, it asks terrible questions in the moments of despair in our own lives, not just in the life of the character. In the moments of horror and jeopardy, the performer and the audience are asking the same questions, living the same experience – ‘what would you do?’. Unlike our everydayness, where we have rationalisations and justifications for our own life while not paying attention to others, we can often not regard the suffering of others, we lack understanding, compassion and empathy. The Greek tragedy undermines our rationality and breaks through our illusion of self and individuality. The instincts and drives that overcome vulnerability and shame are always present, yet absent at the same time, are invoked through the dissolution that follows the Greek Chorus.

      In Apollonian and Dionysian terms

      Dionysus is all about drunkeness, chaos, constant transformation and festival, singing and dancing – it is the spirit of music that we experience together and share. The appearance of Dionysus in the Greek Chorus is the moment where music gives birth to tragedy and the audience becomes one with the performance, taking the characters’ suffering to heart in a way that can’t simply be defined as entertainment. Whatever is happening on the stage, has either happened to the audience before, or they can see how terrible things can happen to good people, how we can’t ever perform absolutely pure acts of goodness without ultimately harming other beings. The excitation of compassion leads to a shared uncertainty, a hesitation and vulnerability within, which is felt by all around too. This invokes our need and desire to belong to a group, a community and to be safe and care for each other. Dionysus is a total loss of self control, emotions and instincts.

      Apollo on the other hand, is much more rigid, hierarchical, rational and seperate. Apollo is what we have incorporated from the world around us, our sense of roles, acting within the limits of those roles and identities. Apollo is the perfect aesthetic experience we have when we observe temples in Greek cities that have huge columns and pillars. It has a plastic quality to it, it can be shaped and reformed at will by the artist a representation of how things appear, how they are.

      Dialectical Monism

      These two concepts are two sides of the same coin. One is always transcendent with the other. One and two. The Greek tragedy was a deliberate reminder that we are unable to escape determinism, there is a nihilism to the experience when the focus on our world always comes down to suffering. The Greeks sought to have a balance between these two principles because an excess of one or the other had such terrible consequences.

      If we are overly individualistic, we may ignore the suffering of others and be too controlling, dominating and hierarchical, cold and calculating, manipulative and vindictive. Being too rigid can also make us socially inept, unable to relate to other people and be self obsessed, insecure and isolated. If one does not come out of their bubble, they may express a volcanic explosion of Dionysus through drugs, alcohol and promiscious sexual relationships.

      If we are too excessive when it comes to collective principles, we will be gullible, credulous, prone to being controlled by others, mindless and drunk, have no sense of self and feel resentful all the time because we feel everything that is for others is all that matters. The volcanic explosion of Apollo may result in dictatorship, totalitarianism, fascism and war. This is the result of being a doormat and being indecisive for too long and revenge takes hold, abjection* creates the dark revolt of being.

      The balance between the two is essential – compassion is the basis for a well balanced being among beings in being.

      [1] From Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian_and_Dionysian
      * Got to my thread on abjection

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    • #24978
      Anonymous

        Worth revisiting.

        #24395
        Anonymous

          Any updates on this?

          #22466
          Anonymous

            Don’t let this go cold.

            #21503
            Anonymous

              Revisiting this topic…

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