中西文化比较专题论文, ancient Greek Dionysus(酒神) and Apollo(太阳神) cultural pattern

A comparison between the ancient Greek Dionysus（酒神）

and Apollo（太阳神）cultural pattern.

In Greek mythology, Dionysus and Apollo are belonging to the twelve major gods of Greek mythology. The former called “god of wine”and represents vitality, drama, ecstasy and drunkenness. The latter called “god of sun” and represents poetry, prophecy, pretty neat and bright. From these, a large number of conclusions seem obvious: Dionysus and Apollo have different meaning, different style, different symbol and so on even in some degree they tow are opposing. Nietzsche had mentioned in his "The Birth of Tragedy" that the spirit of Apollo is the symbol of the appearance of beauty, “we collectively use the name of the sun god appearance of countless beautiful illusion”is a form of beauty, moderation and symmetry, is the analysis and resolution. The sun god spirit is the symbol of visual art and classicism, formalism. And the spirit of Dionysus comes from the wine offering in ancient Greece. In the Dionysian festival, people break the taboo, lust, lift all restraints, and revert to nature. This is a pain and ecstasy intertwined irrational state. "Dionysian ecstasy state, destruction, during its boundaries and rules of daily life, including a kind of trance ingredients,

all individuals experienced in the past are submerged in which the." is a fanatic, crazy pleasure, is to eliminate the boundaries between people, and became known as one of the audience. Dionysus is the spiritual symbol of romanticism, music and performing arts. ----these all are systematically defined Dionysus and Apollo. But here, I would like to explain the conflict between Dionysus and Apollo in detail.

First, In Greek mythology, Apollo represents a rational and harmonious, and Dionysus is a symbol of wild indulgence, reflecting the animal instinct.According to the Greek mythology, Apollo will leave his palace which named Delphi for Arctic which is filling up with sunshine to cruise. At this time, Dionysus and his admires quickly take up this palace and dance, drink and binge here, even eliminated rational out of the palace. ----this myth shows the conflict between rational and instinct.

Second, Apollo creates a harmonious, wonderful life in a fantastic way while Dionysus means body destruction. Apollo is the god of light, as he harnesses the sun in the sky every day to bring light to the universe. It's brilliant shine showing the world everything look beautiful, colorful looks

of things. It maintains the dignity of the glorious beauty is the "principle of individualized magnificent sacred image." One the other hand, under the control of the Dionysus, the individual loses himself, so it is called "the principle of individual crash”Third, Apollo more perfectly expresses the ideal world of imagination. “His entire life and all its beauty and modest are built on the foundation of some kind of hidden pain and knowledge.”----Apollo uses a beautiful veil covering the face of life's tragedies. Dionysus is more real and more sober state that exists in people’s mind, and Break the shackles to feel the truth existence and completeness. ----Dionysus unveils the cover to see the essence of life.

Finally, Apollo represents the "official", "orthodox" like the sun stable, dignified, warm image, and he has a special character that is impartial law enforcement and strict punishment. However, Dionysian does not only mean the Rebellious or deconstruction, on the contrary, it is characterized by a kind of life, an eternal cycle of "to destroy and to creation”. Because there are many different between the two, people are more inclined to infer them to another area. Such as art form and film analysis and Western Comparative. For example, Eastern countries, are more like Apollo in terms of “official”

“Discipline””orthodox”and “serious”. Western countries are more like Dionysus in terms of the “wild””direct””binge” and “romantically”.

The conflict between Apollo and Dionysus is wildly used in our daily life. What’s more, we cannot simply choose Apollo or Dionysus; we always use both of them.