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Apollo versus Dionysus
Apollo versus Dionysus
Apollo versus Dionysus
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Balance is an essential concept in almost every aspect of life. There is a balance between being underweight and overweight, a balance between being introverted and extroverted, a balance between work and lifestyle. In a person’s life, there will be moments where one must keep a balance between his structured, strict side, coined as being his “Apollonian” [Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Birth of Tragedy.] side, and his wild, carefree side, also known as his “Dionysian” side, based off of the two Greek Gods Apollo and Dionysus. If one does not keep that balance, he risks having his repressed side come out in extreme and dangerous ways. This can lead to being highly irrational, and he can risk hurting himself or the people around him. In …show more content…
By starting out with forcing himself to remain very structured and strict, one small change in his life is all it takes to make the tables completely turn, leading him to making bad decisions and eventually leading him to his …show more content…
In it, they are in the woods, and there are women holding "hissing snakes"[137] and "naked daggers" [137], men with "horns above their brows" [137] lifting "their arms and their thighs" [137], and young boys goading "he-goats" [138]. He hears these people chanting "the Stranger God!" [136], and later describes their activities saying they "raged, stimulating each other with lascivious gestures" [138]. This scene is a classic scene from a Dionysian cult in Ancient Greece. By using an orgy that as performed for the God Dionysus, and the reference to the "Stranger God"[136], his other name, he is using direct references to show how he has transformed into a completely Dionysian person. The feverish and jumbled writing, using words such as "howled", "killing" and calling himself a "slave to the foreign God", he clearly demonstrates his new chaotic and animalistic way of
Dionysos, also known as Dionysus, is an Olympian god of many things such as festivity, pleasure, wine, and vegetation. Dionysos is the god of wilderness and one of his attributes are large cats, helping me recognize the statue of him wearing clothes made of animal skin. According to Metropolitan Museum, it stated that, Dionysos wore panther skin over his skirt like clothes and animal head shaped like a huge cat on his high sandals that look like boots” (MET). Also, despite being a male figure, Dionysos has a petite face and is often attractive or even beautiful because he represents youth. Looking at the statue, another attribute that I recognized was that his face looked pretty and had long hair, making him look very young and feminine while having a masculine body.
...ty since "things could happen in the real life of Athens which were virtually unthinkable in tragedy, and vice versa." Perhaps the safest assessment of Dionysus is that while not a direct opponent of the traditional ways, his presence, and especially his effect on other characters, serves to highlight many social norms. According to Bernad Knox, "From start to finish, Euripides was 'attempting to show citizens bred in the traditional views...that such conceptions of the gods should offend them.'" Perhaps we as readers will never fully understand the Dionysus that appears in this play, but a closing look at a remark of the Chorus may bring us a step closer to this understanding:
...t is also important to notice that every character seems to have wide eyes and dark circles drawn under their eyes. This is perhaps one of the most important aspects because the eyes show the underlying theme of complete inebriation. This in turn, proves the impact that Dionysus had on his followers as well as those who he conquered. Wine brought great power to its creator, and made a lasting impact on history. With these devices of communication, we are able to see that the follower wanted to capture Dionysus’s legacy by creating a sarcophagus of remembrance in his honor.
Nobody told me how” (Blurb, Anderson). At this point he pursues the bad boy image, and he does not even know it. When a hero lives in a set life, it usually wakes up, gets a job, and sleeps again. There is a set rules that maybe are not set laws but it is the most chivalry thing to do.... ...
From birth, Dionysus showed his mysterious and dual personality. Zeus was attracted to his mother, Semele, a princess of Thebes, and visited her in human guise and she became pregnant. She was tricked by Hera into asking him to reveal himself in his divine glory, whereupon she was instantly burned in the thundering fires. From her smoldering body a vine grew to shield the fetus, a bull-horned child crowned with serpents. Zeus removed him and placed him into his own thigh, from where Dionysus was later born; hence he is called twice-born. To protect the new infant from Hera's jealousy, Hermes carried him to Ino, Semele's sister, as a foster mother, and she started to raise him as a girl. Ino and her husband were driven mad and killed their own children. Then the divine child was changed into a young goat, and taken by Hermes to be raised by the nymphs of Mount Nysa. He was tutored by Silenus, often shown as a drunken satyr (Powell, 243). From these beginnings we can begin to detect some of the recurring images in the Dionysian religion: the vine, whether grape or ivy; the polymorphic, shape-shifting nature of the god; the madness and violence he brings with him; the wildness of nature, and the mountain nymphs and satyrs.
Although, he is the god of wine who gives festivities and tranquil state of mind. He causes people lose control of their sanity which leads to negative consequences. These actions contradict the norms of society, specifically targeting the role of women who are supposed to be civil. Instead, they dance and worship Dionysus out of their own will. He has a wicked way of punishing those who denied his existence as a god by driving them crazy. His powers lead from being peaceful to destructive. If Dionysus was concerned with morality he will not lead others to lose their sanity or control them against their own will. His actions of seeking revenge are viewed as cruel for murdering those who claim he is not a god. The way he sought revenge to punish those who believed he was not a god shows that he is not concerned with
Before unraveling the scene of Ambrosio and the fallen angle it is necessary to give a short general history of Dionysus, as it relates to this passage. Dionysus was born to a human mother Semele, who burns after seeing Zeus in his true form (Hamilton 65). Zeus saves the child and places him to be raised among nymphs, associated with “the stars which bring rain when they near the horizon” (65) and in this way Dionysus was “born of fire and nursed by rain” (65). Imagery of the vine also helps perpetuate the God’s yearly death, causing him to be torn apart every winter, as well as influencing the Maenads, a group of frenzied woman who run tearing apart anything in their path. While wine can bring joy, these sinister aspects ...
To be human is to be composed of skin, bones, struggle, and discontentment. The average human is constantly reaching for something greater than themselves: stability. We lack stability because we scrutinize ourselves over intellect, self-image, social class, or whatever makes us feel secure. By pursuing our own image of stability, we are forever wandering towards an infinite horizon. The story of The Odyssey by Homer can be used to examine what it means to be human. The Odyssey is about a man named Odysseus, who is lost at sea and faces various delays in attempt to return home. While the delays Odysseus faces are mythological creatures, they represent the day-to-day struggles of the pursue towards stability. A few of the struggles include the Cicones and Polyphemus. The Odyssey reveals the truth about what it means to be human through these delays. The myth can be applied to an endless amount of circumstances when critically examined from different points of view. From my own perspective, Homer’s Odyssey represents the endless struggle I face to find my idea of stability, which is passion.
Dionysus symbolizes the untamed irrationality that cannot be controlled despite the relentless efforts of Pentheus the civilized rationality. He becomes infatuated with apprehending Dionysus, but suffers a horrible death when Dionysus manipulates him into dressing up as a woman and retrieving the maenads from the wild and bring them back to civilization. This leads to his own mother, Agave, and the rest of the savage women of the mountains to tear him apart limb from limb. Dionysus watches his violent punishment play out and witnesses the once proud Pentheus become a
...ed on him. He however goes back to previous ways for a while until he gets a job and finally realizes that he is grown up. This relates directly to society because we must all grow up and we are unable to do so until we realize it for ourselves.
The importance of maintaining a balanced lifestyle will allow one to achieve the most worthwhile existence. Nikos Kazantzakis’ Zorba the Greek dramatizes the significance of balance between the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy, through the characterization of the contrasting protagonists, Boss and Zorba. Kazantzakis typifies the differences amid the philosophical ideologies through the comparison of Boss and Zorba’s beliefs. Moreover, he represents Boss by his willingness to try to improve oneself and live more like Zorba. Through the progression of their journey, Zorba’s Dionysian lifestyle becomes a primary influence to Boss and begins to alter his perspectives on the true meaning of life. Throughout the novel, Kazantzakis outlines the
Nietzsche introduces the Apollonian and the Dionysian as being part of the “Greek Life.” The Apollonian was based off of the Greek god Apollo. It represented culture, order, and art. The Dionysian was based off of the Greek god Dionysus. It represented nature, chaos, and feeling. Both the Apollonian and the Dionysian were combined with the creation of tragedy and became the core o...
I will be with you. 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 is the primal aspect of reality, as well as raw nature, life and death, pleasure. and pain, desire, passion, sexuality, and aggression.
This is where the description “barbaric” comes into the picture. Nietzsche goes to great lengths to define what he terms the “Dionysian barbarian” and which he separates from the Dionysian Greeks. In this passage he expounds upon the traditional Dionysian festivals which occurred “in all c...
... way of thinking is wrong and he admits that he is wrong and reconciles himself with his friends and family.