From The Internet (SparkNotes): The Birth of Tragedy

The Birth of Tragedy Friedrich Nietzsche

Summary

The Birth of Tragedy is divided into twenty-five chapters and a forward. The first fifteen chapters deal with the nature of Greek Tragedy, which Nietzsche claims was born when the Apollonian worldview met the Dionysian. The last ten chapters use the Greek model to understand the state of modern culture, both its decline and its possible rebirth. The tone of the text is inspirational. Nietzsche often addresses the reader directly, saying at the end of chapter twenty, "Dare now to be tragic men, for ye shall be redeemed!" These kinds of exclamations make it more difficult to take his text seriously. However, if we look beyond the flowery words, we find some very interesting ideas. At the same time we confront Nietzsche's enormous bias, particularly when deciding when something is or is not "art." Nietzsche forms a very strict definition of art that excludes such things as subjective self-expression and the opera. Despite his criticisms of human culture, however, Nietzsche has great faith in the human soul and urges us to drop our Socratic pretenses and accept the culture of Dionysus again.

Nietzsche describes the state of Greek art before the influence of Dionysus as being naive, and concerned only with appearances. In this art conception, the observer was never truly united with art, as he remained always in quiet contemplation with it, never immersing himself. The appearances of Apollo were designed to shield man from the innate suffering of the world, and thus provide some relief and comfort.

Then came Dionysus, whose ecstatic revels first shocked the Apollonian man of Greek culture. In the end, however, it was only through one's immersion in the Dionysian essence of Primordial Unity that redemption from the suffering of the world could be achieved. In Dionysus, man found that his existence was not limited to his individual experiences alone, and thus a way was found to escape the fate of all men, which is death. As the Dionysian essence is eternal, one who connects with this essence finds a new source of life and hope. Nietzsche thus shows Dionysus to be an uplifting alternative to the salvation offered by Christianity, which demands that man renounce life on earth altogether and focus only on heaven. For, in order to achieve salvation through Dionysus, one must immerse oneself in life now.

However, while man can only find salvation in Dionysus, he requires Apollo to reveal the essence of Dionysus through his appearances. The chorus and actors of tragedy were representations, through which the essence of Dionysus was given voice to speak. Through them, man was able to experience the joys of redemption from worldly suffering. These Apollonian appearances also stood as a bulwark against the chaos of Dionysus, so that the viewer would be completely lost in Dionysian ecstasy. Nietzsche emphasizes that in real tragic art, the elements of Dionysus and Apollo were inextricably entwined. As words could never hope to delve into the depths of the Dionysian essence, music was the life of the tragic art form.

Music exists in the realm beyond language, and so allows us to rise beyond consciousness and experience our connection to the Primordial Unity. Music is superior to all other arts in that it does not represent a phenomenon, but rather the "world will" itself.

Nietzsche sees Euripides as the murderer of art, he who introduced the Socratic obsession with knowledge and ultimate trust in human thought into the theater. By focusing entirely on the individual, Euripides eliminated the musical element that is crucial to the Dionysian experience. Euripides threw Dionysus out of tragedy, and in doing so he destroyed the delicate balance between Dionysus and Apollo that is fundamental to art. In the second half of his essay, Nietzsche explores the modern ramifications of this shift in Greek thought. He argues that we are still living in the Alexandrian age of culture, which is now on its last legs. Science cannot explain the mysteries of the universe, he writes, and thanks to the work of Kant and Schopenhauer, we must now recognize this fact. The time is ripe for a rebirth of tragedy that will sweep away the dusty remains of Socratic culture. Nietzsche sees German music, Wagner in particular, as the beginning of this transformation. While German culture is decrepit, the German character is going strong, for it has an inkling of the primordial vitality flowing in its veins. Nietzsche has great hope for the coming age and has written this book to prepare us for it.

The Birth of Tragedy Friedrich Nietzsche

Glossary of Important Terms

Appearance - Nietzsche's term for the nature of Apollonian phenomena. Everything that we see around us is appearance, as it is only a veil behind which lies true reality. Likewise, the images in dreams represent the appearance of appearance. Nietzsche contrasts the co ncept of Apollonian appearance, or illusion, to the Dionysian suffering, or reality. Appearance is necessary in order to shield us from the full truth of human suffering which otherwise would crush us with its magnitude.

Chorus - The core of Greek Tragedy, originally called the satyr (half man, half goat) chorus. The chorus was made up of a number of men who watched and commented on the action of the tragedy. Their speech was often far more poetic and difficult to understand than that of the actors. Nietzsche argues that the chorus embodies the soul of music that is the life-blood of tragedy. Without it, tragedy would be nothing.

Euripides - The fifth century Athenian playwright and friend of Socrates who Nietzsche blames for the death of tragedy. Euripides was the third of the great Athenian tragedians, following Aeschylus and Sophocles, and is traditionally considered the most modern. His c haracters are far closer to those found in modern plays than those of Aeschylus, who is still very close to the ritual/religious form of tragedy. Euripides's Bacchae puts Dionysus up on stage in a deadly battle with Pentheus, the ultimate rationali stic king. Needless to say, Dionysus wins. Nietzsche jumps on this and says that Euripides wants to turn his audiences away from Dionysus. However, one could also interpret this to mean that Dionysus should be respected and feared wherever he appears.

Greek Cheerfulness - The unflaggingly chipper optimism of the Greeks. Originally, this cheerfulness was not the superficial result of a shallow mind, but rather the Apollonian reaction in the face of Dionysian suffering. The cheerfulness is a mask, a protective measure agains t the dark and powerful forces of Dionysus. Nietzsche insists that these particular cheerful Greeks were in fact very serious about art, whereas the post-Socratic cheerful Greeks were an entirely different breed. The cheerful characters that we find in Eu ripides are shallow, and the cheerful optimism of post-Socratic culture was a disaster for both Greek myth and tragedy.

Ideal Spectator - Schlegel's term for the role of the chorus in Greek tragedy. Nietzsche disagrees with this idea on the grounds that the chorus could never have been drawn from the crowd of general spectators and so elevated to 'ideal' status. Furthermore, a true spectato r must be aware that he is viewing a work of art, whereas the Greek chorus acted from within the world of the tragedy, as if they were viewing real events. Nietzsche then modifies his criticism and admits that the chorus is the ideal-spectator in the sens e that it is the only 'beholder' of the visionary world of the play.

Naive artist - Term for the artist who is completely absorbed in the beauty of appearance. This state of being is a complete victory of the Apollonian illusion. Homer is the greatest naive artist, for his forms are the most beautiful. Nietzsche clearly views this form o f artist as inferior to the tragic artist, but also superior to the operatic artist. The naive artist is pure one hundred percent Apollonian, which, although unbalanced, is far better than being emotive and degenerate.

Principium Individuationis - Principle of individuation. Apollo champions the unshaken faith in this principle of the individual. Nietzsche contrasts this with the Dionysian immersion in the world will, in order to show how opposite those two art-deities really are. Implicit in the c oncept of the principium individuationis are the boundaries that separate men from the world and from each other. These boundaries are necessary in order to ensure the healthy functioning of society. When these boundaries begin to break down, we can be su re that Dionysus is near.

Primal Unity - The universal bosom to which we can all return through the influence of Dionysus. When filled with ecstatic joy brought on by Dionysus, men forget the differences between themselves and act as a community. Furthermore, they gain access to the undercurrent of universal will that flows beneath all appearances. It is in this space that they may return to the primordial unity and be suffused with a glow of cosmic oneness. It's like going to Woodstock. This may sound like a flippant comparison, but it is not s o far off the mark. Large concerts, raves, and festivals are very much in the Dionysian spirit of common revelry. It is in these venues that one can lose oneself in the common experience and transcend individual suffering for at least a short time.

Theoretical Man - The new man that emerged from the Socratic lust for knowledge. The theoretical man loves to remove the veils from the world, ripping them off with his logic and unflagging faith in the power of the human mind to discover truth. This man suffers under the profound Socratic illusion that thinking can reach to the depths of being and modify it. He strives to make existence seem intelligible, and thus justified. For him, knowledge is virtue. No part of the universe can hold its secrets in the face of his scru tiny, and there is nothing that is fundamentally beyond his logical understanding. This entire concept is an anathema to Nietzsche, as it squashes intuition and denies the existence of miracles and mysteries beyond individual man's reach. Glossary of Greek Names and Terms


Aeschylus - First major Attic tragedian. 525–456 BCE. He is particularly famous for his Oresteia trilogy, which comprises the Agamemnon, the Libation Bearers, and the Eumenides.

Antigone - One of the two daughters of Oedipus, she was the subject of Sophocles's tragedy called Antigone.

Archilochus - Greek iambic and elegiac poet active in the seventh century BCE. Although he makes his personal affairs the subject of his work, it is disputed as to whether his poems were intended as emotional self-expression in the modern sense.

Atlas - The Titan brother of Prometheus who had to hold up the sky on his shoulders.

Cadmus - Legendary founder of Thebes. He is a character in ##The Bacchae## of Euripides.

Cassandra - Mythical Trojan princess to whom Apollo gave prophetic powers in return for sexual favors. When she then changed her mind, he cursed her so that she was always disbelieved.

Cynics - Those who followed the school of Cynicism, which advocated an extremely primitive interpretation of the principle 'live according to nature.'

Delphi - One of the four great pan-Hellenic sanctuaries. It was a famous shrine to Apollo that produced oracles.

Demeter - Greek goddess of the harvest.

Dithyrambic Chorus - Chorus that sings in honor of Dionysus. The Dithyramb was a musical form developed specifically for this.

Eleusis - The most famous deme of Athens. There was a theater of Dionysus and the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore. Every year, initiates from across the Greek world came to celebrate the mysteries, about which we know almost nothing.

Heracles - Legendary semi-diving hero of Greek myth. He was known for his phenomenal strength.

Heraclitus of Ephesus - Compiled a book of aphorisms c.500 BCE. One central tenant of his is strife. He says that nature is like a taut bow, with tensions in both directions.

Lamiae - Monstrous mythical women who stole and killed the children of other women.

Oceanides - Minor ocean deities

Omphale - Queen of Lydia, to whom Heracles was sold as a slave for a year as punishment for the killing of Iphitus.

Orpheus - The most famous singer of myth, son of Apollo and a Muse. His song had incredible powers to enchant his listeners.

Philemon - Very successful New Comedy poet from the fourth century BCE.

Pindar - Lyric poet, born in the sixth century BCE. He was extremely successful and is one of the defining poets of Lyric verse.

Plato - Plato (429–347 BCE) was Socrates's most famous student, and immortalized Socrates's ideas in the Platonic Dialogues. He was insistent in his demands for morality in the life of the individual.

Satyric Chorus - Satyrs were mythical half-human, half-goat figures who inhabited the wild. They were known for their love of wine and sex. In fifth century drama, a group of young satyrs, with Silenus as their head, would have made up the chorus.

Sophocles - Fifth century BCE Athenian tragic playwright. He is most famous for his Oedipus cycle, around which Freud based much of his analysis. He is the second of the 'big three' tragedians (coming between Aeschylus and Euripides.)

Tartarus - The deepest realm of the underworld, where evil men are punished.

Thyrsus - A wooden staff with an acorn affixed to the top carried by the followers of Dionysus who were called Bacchants.

Tireseus - The famous old prophet of Thebes. He and Cadmus are old men in Euripides's Bacchae, and serve in as commentators.

Titans - The generation of gods that preceded the Olympic gods. The Titans are incredibly strong beings who were only defeated after a bloody battle. They are said to have torn apart Dionysus, but then he was put back together again.

Zagreus - The name for Dionysus in his incarnation as the god being torn apart by the Titans.

The Birth of Tragedy Friedrich Nietzsche

Philosophical Themes

Aritstic Tention between Apollo and Dionysus

The opposition between Apollo and Dionysus is both the backbone of Nietzsche's argument and its greatest flaw. While at first it seems that Nietzsche uses the traits associated with these gods as a metaphor for his aesthetic program, it soon becomes clear that he intends to first pin his artistic analysis on the Greeks, and then to argue that this analysis is ancient and thus carries authority. Nietzsche gives no evidence for his claim that Apollo and Dionysus were on either side of the artistic spectrum, nor does he ever discuss the main artistic models for the Greeks: the Muses. While Apollo was associated with the lyre and tonal music, and Dionysus was the patron god of Attic tragedy, the deities first and foremost on any poet's mind were the Muses. Ev ery poet invoked them, either as a group or individually. The Greeks thought of creativity as being a kind of diving substance; the word inspire comes from the Latin "to breathe in," as they thought that when someone had a great idea, they had literally b reathed in the spirit of the god, who then spoke through them. So, in order to create anything, one had to invoke the Muses, who would breathe song into the poet's lips. Wishing to keep his argument simple, Nietzsche makes no mention of this.

Thus, from the outset, we must understand that Nietzsche is bending the Greek consciousness to his aesthetic program. While much of what he says about Apollo and Dionysus is consistent with ancient beliefs, the strong opposition between the god of light a nd the god of ecstasy is mostly Nietzsche's invention. To put this in less harsh terms, we may say that Nietzsche simplified the Greek system to suit his philosophical aims.

Furthermore, we should note that for Nietzsche, a typical late 19th century German, the Greeks were the aesthetic model. In his first sentence, Nietzsche writes that the "continuous development of art is bound up with the Apollonian and Dionysian d uality." He presents this not as a theory, but "with the immediate certainty of intuition." Nietzsche sees it as part of his aesthetic task to clear away the cluttered thinking of the past 2500 years and forges a direct link between Germans and Greeks, wh o he sees as superior to all intervening cultures.

Music

Music is a key concept for Nietzsche, as is in its highest degree a universal language. This universality allows it to connect to the Dionysian essence. Music surpasses all other arts with its power to access the will directly, without attempting to copy the phenomena of the will. This is equivalent to saying that music does not need secondary sources, and thus can go strait to the original. Nietzsche suggests that music is not the medium through which the essence of Dionysus flows, but rather that it is the embodiment of Dionysus. It is only through the spirit of music in tragedy that we can experience joy in the annihilation of the individual, for music carries us beyond individual concerns. The tragic hero, whose annihilation we witness, is a phenomeno n of the world-will. His death signifies only the death of the phenomenon, not of the will itself. Man may not comprehend this truth logically, but he can feel it in the music.

Having established that music is the soul of the tragic myth, Nietzsche then demonstrates how modern German music has the potential to affect a rebirth of tragedy. Music is a central theme in this work, as it is one of the few constants that is able to co nnect Greek and German cultures. Nietzsche sees music as the key to the soul of a people. Because the German character is still connected to the vital primitive power that precedes civilized life, German music is of necessity a new incarnation of the Dion ysian in art.

Suffering

In his discussion of the sufferings of the Greeks, Nietzsche shows that he understands them from his own pessimistic standpoint. The Greeks had a problem, he argues, and tragedy fixes it. That problem was that the Greeks were a particularly sensitive peop le, and so they had difficulty reconciling themselves with the suffering of the world. While all cultures experience this dilemma of suffering, the Greeks were more seriously affected and so more urgently strove to solve the problem of their suffering. Th eir first solution was the creation of the Olympian gods, but they were mere Apollonian appearances and did not satisfy the soul. Under the influence of Apollo, man was still aware that his destiny was controlled by dark forces, despite the beautiful thin gs with which he surrounded himself.

Nietzsche tells the story of King Midas, who finally caught the satyr Silenus and asked him what was the best of all things for man. His answer was, as Nietzsche puts it, "Oh, wretched ephemeral race, children of chance and misery, why do ye compel me to tell you what it were most expedient for you not to hear? What is best of all is beyond your reach forever: not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. But the second best for you—is quickly to die." The ancient world was a rough place; war was a constant reality, disease was rampant and often incurable, and outside of a city's walls no law was assured. In the face of this, and in addition to the awareness that there is some mysterious force driving one's fate in strange directions, the Greeks would have perished, had they not created first the Olympian gods; but this still was not enough.

Dionysus offered real salvation from suffering, not by covering it up with pretty images, but by absorbing the individual into the great community of the unconscious. In the 'bosom' of Primal Unity, as Nietzsche calls it, man found deliverance from his in dividual fate, joined as he was to the souls of so many others. Existential suffering is a product of the individual who thinks he suffers alone, and can see no meaning in existence. Dionysus removes the veil from men's eyes, showing them the grand, dark chaos that sits in their hearts, and in the hearts of all men. Dionysus urges man to rejoice in this chaos, to lose himself, and thus to grow beyond his suffering.