Page 10 - GALIET WHIM WILL AND WOE: The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche IV

Galiet & Galiet
Mysticism or metaphysical comfort,7 the art of Dionysus,8 reinstates humans in the real after understanding the limitations of science and of Socrates, its founder. Thus, the Grecian tragic sense can be defined as the hunger to submerge again in the original fountains of reality to be purgated from the great sin of existence: individuality. Humankind then accepts its tragic destiny and abandons joy, with which it attains something superior to it: the sensation of plenitude. The tragic hero, by carrying the whole world on his shoulders, resembles Atlas in that he relieves humans from the burden of existence. It is true that Dionysus’ art is not, according to Nietzsche, the only representation of the tragic; in fact, Apollo already speaks the tragic language (just as Socrates speaks of his daemon and wants, in jail, to play the flute) in a way that tragedy is the fraternal reunion of Apollo and Dionysus.9
This is why Nietzsche believes Aristotle misunderstood tragedy. He thought that tragic emotions were depressing. If this were the case, says Nietzsche, then tragedy would be indeed foreign to life and it would need, as Aristotle proposed in his Poetics,10 to exalt tragic emotions to cathart or be liberated from them. As a result, resignation instead of one’s courageous acceptance of one’s destiny 3⁄4 amor fati11 (proud of its own courage) 3⁄4 would be their consequence. For
7 Nietzsche sees metaphysical comfort as a consolation, a remedy and panacea against the terror of existence. Ibid. Chapter 16. Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy. Trans. Clifton P. Fadiman. New York: Dover Publications, 1995.
8 Nietzsche claims tragedy, the art of Dionysus, is born from the limitation of science and from the Satyr, not the chorus. The Satyr, the idyllic shepherd 3⁄4 half-animal, half-human 3⁄4 follower of Dionysus, musician, poet and dancer mirrors nature or phusis and is equally motivated by dithyramb, wisdom and visionary ecstasy. Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy. Trans. Clifton P. Fadiman. New York: Dover Publications, 1995.
9 In fact, Dionysus and Apollo, half-brothers by Zeus, were known to share the same Temple at Delphi in antiquity at different times: Dionysus in the winter and Apollo in the summer. Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy. Trans. Clifton P. Fadiman. New York: Dover Publications, 1995.
10 Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. Malcolm Heath. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.
11 To Nietzsche, Amor Fati is love of one’s destiny, fatum or fate. Hence, the Dionysian being, accepting and embracing necessity cheerfully, expresses the true greatness of human beings. He does not wish for anything to be different, neither in the past nor in the future, or for all eternity. He not only endures necessity, but also loves it. He does not deny or dissimulate it since any idealism is a menace to necessity. Nietzsche. Ecce
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