Art's Role in the Battle between Nature and Civilization Page 5

Nietzsche pits the dionysian and the apollinian on opposite sides of a dialectical relationship. Time is a key component of this relationship, because as time passes the relationship changes; however, because time passes, we can see the true relationship form. We must be able to see each side separately in order to get a true feeling for the relationship, and the dionysian, or nature, is the first part of the relationship.

To put it simply, "the Dionysian Greek wants truth and nature in their most forceful form" (62). For Nietzsche, the dionysian represents the truest form of reality and one extreme in the dialectical relationship. The dionysian can be looked at as the body rather than mind. This is because the body is at one with nature only when the mind is not there to hold it back. The mind is there to execute will, the body, however, in its truest form can experience passion and become one with nature.

If the dionysian could be related to the body, then the apollinian could be related to the mind. Much like Freud thinks, our civilization has been based upon the evolution of the mind. In the apollinian we see our ability to execute our own will. This being said, Nietzsche, like Freud, believes that civilization alone cannot provide for all of our needs. After all, if we dream at night or have the urge to alter our own state of mind, then there must be something that we are missing out on…the dionysian.

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