Chapter 12 one

As long as we understand, not only from logical reasoning, but from the immediate reliability of intuition, that the continuing development of art is bound up with the duality of Apollo and Dionysus, we shall do much to the benefit of the science of aesthetics.This is very similar to the duality in which reproduction depends on sexuality, in which there are continuous struggles and only intermittent reconciliations.We borrow these names from the Greeks, who, though not with concepts, but with vivid images of their mythical world, made the meaningful mysteries of their artistic intuitions audible to the understanding.Our knowledge is connected with their two art gods, Apollo and Dionysus.In the Greek world there was a great antagonism in origin and aim between the Apollonian plastic art and the Dionysian non-plastic musical art.Two instincts so different co-exist with each other, and for the most part openly separate from each other, that they constantly stimulate each other to a more powerful new birth, in which the struggle of opposites is always maintained, and the general term "art" only superficially reconciles it. This kind of struggle is all.Only at last, by a metaphysical miraculous act of the Greek "Will," did they unite with one another, and through this union at last came the Attic tragedy, a Dionysian and Apollonian work of art.

To bring us closer to these two instincts, let us first imagine them as two separate art worlds, dreaming and drunkenness.A corresponding opposition is to be seen between these physiological phenomena, as between the Apollinian and Dionysian factors.According to Lucretius, the image of the magnificent god first appeared to the human mind in a dream, and the great sculptor saw the graceful limb structure of a superhuman spirit in his dream.If the secrets of poetic composition were to be probed, the Greek poets would also call attention to dreams, as Hans Sachs taught in The Meistersinger: Everyone is a complete artist in the creation of dreams, and the beautiful appearance of dreams is the precondition of all plastic arts, and of course, as we shall see, a great part of poetry.We enjoy it through the immediate apprehension of the image, all the models speak to us, nothing is unimportant or superfluous.Even when dream reality is at its most active, we still have a hazy sense of its appearance.At least this is my experience, and I can offer some evidence and poetic quotes to show that it is common, even regular.Philosophers even have the hunch that beneath this reality in which we live and exist there is something quite different, so that this reality is also an appearance.Schopenhauer puts it bluntly that a man's gift for seeing people and things as mere phantoms and dreams is the mark of philosophical talent.As the philosopher faces the reality of existence, so the artistically sensitive man faces the reality of dreams.He concentrates on the dream, because he wants to interpret the real meaning of life from the dream scene, and he rehearses the dream process in order to live.He clearly experiences not only pleasant and friendly scenes, but also serious, melancholy, pathetic, dark scenes, sudden depressions, tricks of fate, anxious expectations, in short, the whole "Divine Comedy" of life. , together with the "Hell Chapter", are called to pass through him, not just like a shadow play - because he lives and suffers in this drama - but also still has that fleeting sense of appearance.Some of you may remember, as I did, sometimes cheering yourself up when you were in a dream of danger and fright, only to cry out: "It's a dream! I'm going to dream it!" I've heard that some people I once had the same coherent dream three or four nights in a row.It turns out clearly that our innermost essence, the deep foundation common to all of us, experiences dreams firsthand with a profound joy and pleasurable necessity.

The Greeks expressed this pleasurable necessity for experiencing dreams in their Apollo god.Apollo, as the god of all modeling power, is also the god of prophecy.According to its etymology, he is "The Shining One", the god of light, who also rules over the beautiful appearance of the inner fantasy world.This higher truth, the perfection of these states as opposed to the elusive everyday reality, and the deep comprehension of nature that restores and helps in sleep, are both prophetic and generally artistic. Symbolic analogues by virtue of which life is possible and worth living.However, the same soft contours that are inviolable in dream-images - so as not to cause pathological effects, otherwise we would mistake appearances for rough reality - are also indispensable in the image of Apollo: moderate restraint, avoid Strongly stimulated, the wisdom and tranquility of the god of modeling.His eyes must be "sunlike" according to their source, and even when they rage and glare, they retain a beautiful and radiant dignity.In a sense, what Schopenhauer said about the man who hides behind the veil of Maya may also apply to Apollo.On page 416 of the first volume, it is written: "The noisy sea is boundless, and the roaring waves are rolled over. The boatman sits in the boat, supported by a small boat; similarly, the lonely person is calmly placed in the world of suffering, Trust in the principium individuationis.” It may indeed be said of Apollinia that in him the unwavering confidence in this principle, the equanimity of the person who hides in it, finds its most solemn expression, and Apollinia himself deserves to be Seen as the majestic divine figure of the individuating principle, his countenance and gaze reveal to us all the joy, wisdom and beauty of the Appearance.

In the same place, Schopenhauer describes to us the great horror when man is suddenly confronted with perplexity by a certain cognitive model of phenomena, when the law of sufficient reason appears to encounter exceptions in any of its forms, and this Horror seized him.If we add to this horror the blissful ecstasy that arises from man's innermost foundation, nature, when the principle of individuation breaks down, we have a glimpse of the Dionysian essence, compared to drunkenness. most apt.Either by the power of that narcotic drink of which the hymns of all savage peoples and peoples speak, or in the season when the spring shines brightly on all things, the Dionysian passion is awakened, and with this passion the subjectivity gradually fades. Into a state of ecstasy.In the Middle Ages in Germany, driven by the same power of Dionysus, people gathered in groups, formed choirs, sang and danced, and traveled around.In the song-and-dancers of Sanct Johanntaenzer and Sanct Veittaenzer we revisit the Dionysian chorus of ancient Greece and its prehistory in Asia Minor, and even Babylon and its lustful Sakai Subsection (Sakaeen).There are those who, through inexperience or blunted senses, are complacent about their health, and avoid these phenomena with irony or pity, as if they were avoiding a "folk disease."These wretches, of course, never imagined how corpse-like and ghostly their "health" would be while the fiery life of the Dionysian chorus boiled around them.

Under the magic of Dionysus, not only is man reunited with man, but also alienated, hostile, and enslaved nature celebrates her festival of reconciliation with her prodigal son human beings.The earth offered its tribute automatically, and the wild beasts in the precipice and desert also came docilely.The chariot of Dionysus is full of flowers and garlands, and tigers and leopards drive this float.A man who turns Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" into a picture, and lets the imagination go on contemplating millions falling trembling in the dust, gets almost a taste of the Dionysian state.At this moment, the slave is also a free man.At this moment, the rigid and hostile barriers that poverty, tyranny, or "shameless fashion" have erected between people break down.At this moment, in the Gospel of Oneness, each person feels himself united, reconciled, attuned, even one with his neighbor.The veil of Maya seems to have been torn, leaving only fragments shivering before the mysterious One.He sings and dances gracefully, as if he is a member of a higher community, he forgets his steps and words, and rides the wind with ease.His manner showed that he was possessed.As now the beast speaks, and the earth flows milk and honey, so also the supernatural wonders are wrought in man: now he feels himself a god, and he changes so ecstatically and condescendingly, as he dreams of the gods changing. .Man is no longer an artist, but a work of art: the artistic capacity of the whole of nature, aimed at the blissful satisfaction of the One, is revealed here through drunken shudders.Man, the most precious clay, the most precious marble, is here kneaded and carved, and to the sound of the Dionysian cosmic artist's chiseling, the cry of the Eleusinian Mystery resounds: "O people, you Did you fall to the ground in awe? Universe, have you realized the Creator?"