Ancient Greek Myths Of Dionysus And Apollo example essay topic

The Apollonian and Dionysian man complete each other in the sense that these two terms create our society. The Apollonian man was given its name from Apollo, the sun-god. He represents light, clarity, and form. The Dionysian man was given its name from the Greek god Dionysus. As the wine-god, he represents drunkenness and ecstasy. The Dionysian was the primal aspect of reality, as well as raw nature, life and death, pleasure and pain, desire, passion, sex, and aggression.

It is the source of primal instincts. 'The Dionysian with its primal pleasure-experienced even in pain- is the common womb of music and tragic myth... the Apolline is the realm of dreams and ideal forms. ' ('The Birth of Tragedy' Nietzsche, 1871) The Apollonian is the humanized aspect of reality, civilization, harmony, and balance. It follows order, form, status, peace, moderation, permanence, symbolism, language, and reason. In modern psychological terms it is the Ego and Superego.

The complexities of the Dionysian person verses the Apollonian person will be explored using Robert Johnson's Ecstasy. The Dionysian name emp hazing the irrational element of frenzy was found in the rites of Dionysus. This book explores the nature of ecstasy through the myth of Dionysus. In ancient Greece, Dionysus was the god of wine and ecstasy. 'The myth of Dionysus is a picture of the forces, behaviors, and instincts that shape our inner world. He is a complex figure who symbolizes the irrational world of our senses as it interacts with the rational world of rules and limitations.

' (Johnson, 11) Zeus, in disguise, traveled on earth and came upon the city of Thebes. He fell hopelessly in love with Semele, the daughter of King Cadmus. She became pregnant and wanted to look into the eyes of her lover. She asked Zeus to grant her a boon. He made an oath with the River of Styx. This oath exclaimed she could have anything.

She asked to see the god of the thunderbolt in his true splendor. She persisted and sadly he kept his word. This meant her death. She was immediately incinerated. Only her womb, wrapped in ivy, escaped the flame. Zeus was furious, therefore he cut an incision in his thigh, and tucked the child into it.

The baby continued to grow in Zeus's thigh. When gestation was complete, Zeus gave birth to the infant god, Dionysus. (Johnson, 15) The Titans feared the infant god so they tore him to pieces. A pomegranate tree sprouted from the earth, where a drop of his blood had fallen.

Zeus's mother, Rhea, made him whole again. Semele's sister, Ino, and her husband Athamas, raised Dionysus as a girl so Hera would not recognize him. Hera was not deceived. Her rage drove Ino and Athamas mad. Zeus ordered Hermes, the divine messenger, to transform Dionysus into a young goat. He wanted them to bring him to Mt.

Nysa where he would be secretly raised by nymphs, the joyous female spirits of the forests and mountains. (Johnson, 20) Dionysus spent his childhood gamboling over the mountainside, surrounded by nature, learning the sensuous pleasures of the earth. The muses, one of his teachers, inspired him with poetry and music. The sat urs (half-men, half-goat) taught him wonders of dance and exuberant sexuality. The sileni (part-man, part-horse), spirits of the springs and rivers, taught him wisdom.

Silenus, the intoxicated old man was Dionysus's predecessor. He taught the young god virtue. (Johnson, 23) Years passed, Dionysus learned many things. The grapevine can only grow in the sun's intense heat and moisture of the spring rain. Dionysus had been born of fire and nourished by the rains of the mountain. He understood the power of the vine perfectly, and marked his passage from childhood by inventing the art of wine-making.

This would bring humanity so much potential joy and desperation. Dionysus now stood revealed as a god. Wherever Dionysus went, he invited people to join in his celebration. Those who chose to worship him experienced divine ecstasy, those who opposed him chose madness. Eventually Hestia, the ancient and respected goddess of Hearth gave Dionysus her seat on Olympus. He was content, although he was not satisfied.

He wanted to see his mother. He rescued her from the underworld and brought her to Olympus to live with Immortals. He named her Thy one, which meant 'ecstasy'. He was eventually ejected from Olympus. Forced into the realm of dream and myth, his energy is once again returning to our consciousness. 'If we can go willingly to meet and understand Dionysus, we can use this archetypal power to transform our lives.

' (Johnson, 33) 'Happiness is stated to come at the whim of fortune. No happiness can be kept permanently. Therefore, the differentiation is so crucial: because to seek joy is to seek Dionysus. ' (Johnson, 39) You can not kill a god, who is immortal. Neither can you kill an archetype. An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way.

It is a basic human drive. We carry the archetypes deep within us. They are important parts of our human nature. Therefore, they must be lived out.

When an archetype is not lived out with consciousness or dignity, it 'loads up with energy and becomes inhuman. ' (Von Franz) This happens not only on the level of the individual, but on the level of the collective unconscious, the psyche of a whole society. The collective unconscious is the foundation of our experiences as a species, a type of knowledge we are born with. We can not be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors.

The contents of the collective unconscious are the archetypes. The archetype has no form of its own, although it acts as an 'organizing principle' on the things we see or do. The anima is the female aspect present in the collective unconscious of men. The animus is the male aspect present in the collective unconscious of women. The anima may be personified as a young girl, very spontaneous and intuitive.

The animus is likely to be personified as a wise old man, and tends to be logical, often rationalistic, even argumentative. The anima or animus is the archetype through which you communicate with the collective unconscious, and it is important to get into touch with it. It is also the archetype that is responsible for much of our love life: We are, as an ancient Greek myth suggests, always looking for our other half, the half that the Gods took from us, in members of the opposite sex. When we fall in love at first sight, then we have found someone that "fills" our anima or animus archetype. (Jung) In a psychological sense the hero image is not to be regarded as identical with the proper ego. It is better described as the symbolic means by which the ego separates itself from the archetypes evoked by the parental images in early childhood.

(Jung, 129) "Each human being has originally a feeling of wholeness, a powerful and complete sense of the self. From the self, the totality of the psyche, the individualized- ego-consciousness emerges as the individual grows up". (Jung, 129) Ecstasy was once considered a favor of the gods, a divine gift that could lift immortals out of ordinary reality and into a higher world. It is the tragedy of contemporary Western Society that we have lost the ability to experience the trans formative power of ecstasy and joy. (Johnson, 3) No matter how many low grade experiences we accumulate, we always crave more.

This craving has led to the most characteristic symptom of our time. This symptom is addictive behavior. So many of our lives are touched by addiction. It is the negative side of spiritual seeking. We are looking for an exultation of the spirit.

Although, instead of fulfillment we get a short-lived physical thrill that can never satisfy the chronic emptiness with which we are beset. The first step is to try to understand the nature of ecstasy. The myth of Dionysus, and the rise and fall of his cult, offer the best elucidation of our loss of ecstatic experience. (Johnson, 5) The analogy of dreams and drunkenness illustrate the contrast between the Apollonian and Dionysian. Dreams are important because we immediately comprehend all form while in the dream state. This reveals a reality that exists beyond our usual perception of reality and can be used to communicate higher truth, unlike the everyday conscious world.

Apollo appears in dreams as the highest expression of the ultimate principle, which places appearance and beauty together. The dream state also provides a sort of help and healing during sleep that makes the everyday living in the world possible and worthwhile. (Nietzsche, 1) The Dionysian state happens when the ultimate principle collapses. This compares to drunkenness. In this state, we identify more with the primitive and lose ourselves in self-forgetfulness. Instead of being individuals, as in the Apollonian state, people lose themselves in the emotion of the moment and all the barriers that normally separate people have been broken down.

Man is also reunited with nature and there is a primordial unity between all things. Everyone becomes part of a feeling of oneness. The separation of the Dionysian and the Apollonian state are important to the Greek psyche. An ancient Greek tale tells of how King Midas haunted demigod Silenus to find the answer to what the best and most desirable things for man is. Silenus answered, "What is best of all is beyond your reach forever: not to be born, not to be, not to be nothing.

But the second best thing for you- is quickly to die" (page 505). The Greeks knew about the misery and terror of existence. In order to deal with this truth, they created a glorified, mirrored image of themselves as deities so that life itself would become manageable. The Apollonian state acts as a veil which hides the horrible truth behind beauty and appearance. The words of Silenus have been forgotten, so the Appolonian feels true sorrow when they are divorced from this veil of truth. This concept plays an important part as the enforcer of the illusion.

The person believes in the veil and doesn't see what is beyond the Apollonian state. The dream state creates both "an appearance of an appearance" and a blissful ignorance for the Apollonian Greek. The Dionysian reveals that the truth of existence is based on suffering. Therefore, the whole Apollonian existence relies on the fact that reality is pain and suffering.

Once the individual has been caught up in the Dionysian state, they forget about the construct of the Apollonian. Instead of staying, in the unity of the Dionysian state, the Greeks return to the construct of the Apollonian state. Therefore, the Dionysian release is only a temporary tunnel, pointing to a reality we believe in and points toward something beyond it". (Nietzsche, 1) Apollonian portrays reason, as Dionysian portrays intuition. Apollo was the Greek god of truth, light, and order. Dionysus was the god of fertility, passion, spontaneity, and rebellion.

Apollo and Dionysus represent polarities of the human personality, such as the logical, orderly side, and the intuitive spontaneous side. Inside each of us, Apollo and Dionysus wage a war form dominance. The two sides quarrel with one another for dominance in various aspects of our lives. The solution is to strive for a balance between these two mighty forces, a struggle made more difficult by the fact that these opposing elements also manifest themselves in institutions such as religion and education. Humanities may help balance these oppositions because even if the content of much art is full of Dionysian emotion, its form is Apollonian. (Jan aro, 1) The Dionysian is organic, musical, and sexual.

It represents intoxication, untamed instincts, free as the ocean. The Apollonian is the shift-shaper, illusion, form, and sculpture. It attempts to pass off illusion as reality. It has a fear of sexuality, natural violence, is decadent, hollow, weak, and values systems and institutions. "The only self-knowledge is to distinguish well between our self-being and non-being. We seek ourselves in the mirror of existence".

(Leibniz, 1) "Dionysian stirrings arise either through the influences of those narcotic potions of which all primitive races speak in their hymns, or through the powerful approach of spring, which penetrates with joy the whole frame of nature. So impelled, the individual forgets himself completely... the chariot of Dionysus is bedecked with flowers and garlands; panthers and tigers stride beneath his yoke... his Apollonian consciousness was but a thin veil hiding from him the whole Dionysian realm... (Nietzsche The Birth of Tragedy) "The Apollonian tendency is associated with the instinct for form, beauty, moderation, and symmetry. It is the basis of all analytic distinctions".

(Nitezsche The Birth of Tragedy) The Apollonian and Dionysian are two terms that consummate each other in the sense that they structure our society. The Apollonian is the humanized aspect of reality, civilization, harmony, and balance. It follows order, form, status, peace, moderation, symbolism, and reason. The Dionysian was the primal aspect of reality, as well as nature, life and death, desire, passion, sex, and aggression.

Robert Johnson's Ecstasy explored the nature of ecstasy thought the ancient Greek myths of Dionysus and Apollo. Ecstasy was once considered a favor of the gods, a divine gift that could lift mortals out of ordinary reality and into a higher world.