Talk:The Birth of Tragedy

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[edit] Schopenhauer

The book has many references to Schopenhauer, as well as several long quotes from Schopenhauer's works. However, there are two sentences from Schopenhauer that may have had a strong influence on Nietzsche:

First of all, let me mention here that, remote as the Greeks were from the Christian and lofty Asiatic world-view, and although they were decidedly at the standpoint of the affirmation of the will, they were nevertheless deeply affected by the wretchedness of existence. The invention of tragedy, which belongs to them, is already evidence of this.

—The World as Will and Representation, Vol. II, Ch. XLVI

This can be compared with Nietzsche:

Here, when the danger to his will is greatest, art approaches as a saving sorceress, expert at healing. She alone knows how to turn these nauseous thoughts about the horror or absurdity of existence into notions with which one can live: these are the sublime as the artistic taming of the horrible, and the comic as the artistic discharge of the nausea of absurdity. The satyr chorus of the dithyramb is the saving deed of Greek art; faced with the intermediary world of these Dionysian companions, the feelings described here exhausted themselves

—The Birth of Tragedy, Section 7

Lestrade 14:43, 31 May 2006 (UTC)Lestrade

[edit] Modern views

Do modern classical scholars take this book or the Apollonian/Dionysian concepts seriously? 152.23.84.168 22:08, 1 December 2006 (UTC)