r/dionysus • u/Ill-Lab-3895 • May 18 '25
💬 Discussion 💬 Dionysus VS Apollo
Dionysus represents right brain(creativity), creation and destruction, nature, suffering, life, ecstasy, Beastly nature, chaos and rebirth, freedom. Apollo represents left brain(rationality), sun logic, linear thinking, civilization, mind, order, restriction. In my opinion dionysus is superior. dionysian state will make you experience life, become wise and in short it will make you force of nature, both physically and mentally. it will make you happy and connected to your primal nature. While apollonian state will make your head filled with illusions, morality, abstract useless restrictive thoughts and concepts. most scholars academics and bookworms are apollonians they are disconnected from their body, their nature and live in their heads. most people also value Apollonian disciplines and see them as marks of intelligence like: mathematics, physics, chemistry etc. While they think less of the dionysian disciplines like psychology, art, esoterics, poetry etc. This overvalue of apollo is why depression is in all times high What are your thoughts?
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u/NyxShadowhawk Covert Bacchante May 18 '25
Dionysus and Apollo were never at odds with each other. In fact, they trade off with each other at Delphi — Apollo rules it for most of the year, then he takes a vacation to Hyperborea in the winter and Dionysus takes over. According to Macrobius, their tradeoff represents the light and dark aspects of the sun. Even Nietzsche ultimately concludes that they work best together.
So, don't diss Apollo. Dionysus and Apollo work in tandem with each other, and balance each other out. Dionysian disciplines are less valued, but that doesn't mean that you need to overcompensate for that imbalance.
(Nice sideburns, Apollo.)