The Artful Life Uses Calm Reason And Emotional Frenzy

They appear as opposites, but really, they’re complimentary

In The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche outlines two opposing yet complementary forces of nature and the psyche: the Apollonian, and Dionysian.

Apollo is the Greek god associated with light, the Sun, our ability to think logically. The Apollonian represents the calm work of creating order out of chaos.

Dionysus has the opposite attitude: getting drunk on wine and dance, in ecstatic surrender to irrational passions.

The Greeks, Nietzsche explains, viewed man as an equal mixture of these traits. We are creatures capable of reason and progress, and at the same time capable of wildness and destruction, living in a world that reflects the same character.

This worldview led the Greeks to an appreciation for tragedy in their stories and plays — noble heroes balanced and thwarted by the absurdity of life. This was not depressing for the Greeks, but strengthening.

The ancient Greeks recognized the ridiculous suffering natural in life, and put it into art. The role of art is to update the hearts and minds of people. Greek tragedy taught people to process their suffering into art — that even the most horrible of situations could, at…