Firstly the dionysian the passion that overwhelms the character and the apollonian the purely pictorial imagery of the theatrical spectacle.
Attic tragedy nietzsche.
The first was the setting the second was a dream and the third was a rather cheap pun stolen from nietzsche s first book.
The birth of tragedy.
Nietzsche uses this section to refine his conception of the epiphany that is reached when the apollonian and the dionysian come together in one art form.
It is nietzsche s dithyrambic drama thus spoke zarathustra that provides the apprehension he writes about in the very first sentence of the birth of tragedy.
While he has not yet reached his main topic attic tragedy he builds closer to it with his discussion of the different layers of appearance and how they are necessary for man in order to persevere in a world of suffering.
In order to justify his relentless quest to find dionysus at the heart of attic tragedy nietzsche writes that we must not trust what we find on the surface of sophoclean and aeschylean dialogue.
Friedrich nietzsche at the end of the 19th century highlighted the contrast between the two main elements of tragedy.
His plays in contrast to that of achilles or sophocles focused not on great tragic heroes but the common man dramatic reinterpretations of everyday occurrences similar to modern day soaps.
Nietzsche stressed the importance of living with a tragic awareness of life and asserted that only through the cultivation of such a state could genuine growth creativity greatness and the capacity to truly affirm life be attained.
We have emphasized apollo for so long that it is very difficult for us to embrace dionysus especially if we have been brought up in christianity truly an apollonian religion if there ever was one.
The attic tragedy was born from three separate inanimate ideas that rattled around inside me for two or three years before striking together and sparking a story.