What I am learning from the Greeks

     

My Interest In Nietzsche

The psychology professor whose lectures on psychology and human behavior I enjoy listening to--, Jordan Peterson describes the writer as a genius in describing the societal shifts of the late 18th century. He is also said to have- in ways- predicted the Holocaust, theorizing there would be a violent side-effect from the decline in religious ritual and practice, referred to as "the death of god."

 I first became aware of Nietzsche when reading a biography on the late Jim Morrison, the volatile, rebellious rock legend who voraciously read the philosopher at a young age, which greatly influenced his poetry and later song lyrics for the Doors. 

I also thought of Neitzche this past summer when hiking on the Neitzche trail to the little French town of Eze, where Neitzche spent time thinking and developing his theories that later turned into the infamous book Thus Spake Zarathustra.

A Birth of a Tragedy

    So when I came across "A Birth of a Tragedy"(95 cents at a used book store), I thought I should try it.  Reading it, I felt lost and had to do a lot of googling on Greek mythology references and history to understand the context. 

    In the version that I have, the first chapter is titled "An attempt at self-criticism." Here,  Nietzsche, in his his later years, critiques the work of his younger self, at 28. He comments on how the book is very anecdotal, with not too many examples. It is passionate and scattered. 

     Since I was not well versed in Greek mythology or even ancient  Greece or Rome and since this is Nietzsche's first book, so it is- as he pointed out himself-  scattered with missing examples, it took me some time to get through the book and really understand it.

The Purpose of Religion or God

I love the ideas presented. He has so many quotes you could just sit and meditate on, such as "The Greeks knew and felt the fears and horrors of existence: in order to be able to live at all they interpose the radiant dream birth of the Olympians between themselves and these horrors." (Pg. 22). This is how many view religion, and in fact, an insight I gained through experiencing "God," "the Gods," or "the mystical realm" and what I learned is it is a creation of the mind and in important one, a tool for survival.  Our consciousness acknowledges the horror of living and has adaptively responded by creating a space in the brain to deal with this fact. He goes on to say art, music, poems, comedy, and satyr were born out of the human desire to speak to God, and an urge like hunger was born, to create language to describe beauty, life, ugliness, and death. 

Apollonian & Dysionism Dualities

Here, Neitzche goes back and forth describing the realms of Dionysus and Apollo. Dionysus, the world of music, suffering, excess, birth, nature's unseen power, birth, destruction & Apollo, the world of order, truth, morals, sculptor, the physical world.

"Apollo, as an ethical deity, demands moderation from his followers and, in order to maintain it, self-knowledge......The Apolline Greeks also saw the effect of the Dionysiac as "Titanic" and "barbaric," unable to conceal from themselves the fact that they themselves were also inwardly akin to those fallen Titans and heroes.....Apollo could not live without Dionysus! In the end, the "Titanic" and the " barbaric " were just as necessary as the Apolline!" 

Same idea as Yin and Yang. Apollo gave structure, but Dionysian is where we come from. There is no light without darkness. No joy without pain, etc. 

Science and logic come from Apollo while mystery and art come from Dionysus. There is no poetry, festival, or song in the Apollion world and no order or structure in the Dionysus. There is a necessity for both in understanding the human experience. When one takes over too much, the world is out of order and seeks homeostasis.  

The Importance of Dionysus, the music, the choir 

The choir represents the Dionysian element in the balanced Greek tragedy; when it was removed, Nietzsche's theory of Athenian tragic drama suggests exactly how, before Euripides and Socrates, the Dionysian and Apollonian elements of life were artistically woven together. The Greek spectator became healthy through the direct experience of the Dionysian within the protective spirit of tragedy on the Apollonian stage.

"Dionysiac artist, he has been thoroughly united with the primal ones, its pain, and contradiction, and produces the copy of that primal oneness as music."

Peace. "Only from the spirit of music can we understand delight in the destruction of the individual. " 

The Significance of the beginning of the love of Truth Seeking

The creation of peace (as opposed to war) because "Understanding kills action, action depends on a veil of illusion"(pg. 39). 

"We cannot help but see Socrates as the turning point, the vortex of world history....global tendency have not in the service of knowledge but in ways applied to the practical- selfish- goals of individuals and nations, universal wars of destruction and constant migrations of peoples " (pg. 73). 

The Birth of a Tragedy

Combining rhetoric with music, creation of plays, dramas Tragedies. " Dionysus speaks the language of Apollo, but Apollo finally speaks the language of Dionysus, and thus is attained the supreme goal of tragedy and of arts in general" (104). 

Reflections & Questions

I am struck by how I am pulled back and forth between the two extremes of the Apollonian and Dionysian realms, emphasizing and appreciating the necessity of each. Accepting our humanity means accepting the two truths about us: we are imperfect, volatile, illogical creatures capable of harmony, peace, and oneness. Our best world is in understanding and incorporating both worlds; in stable societies, there is always this balance when they start to polarize when societies fall.

More on Nietzsche

Netizche is said to have greatly influenced the great psychoanalytic thinkers, Sigmund Freud and Carl Yung. His ideas on the Dionysian and Apollonian impulses of culture and society are the Western literary world equivalent of Ying and Yang.. and although critiqued as antiwomen as the Dionysian side many times equated to Woman and Nature and the Apollionan Men and God, interpretations such as the controversial Camille Praglia helps us see these parallels as not moralistic explanations but rather as dualities that help explain history, art, and war.  Ideas she references frequently in her 2017 book "Free Women, Free Men"(which I am currently reading and will write about later).