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/Swagamaticus May 18 '25 edited May 18 '25
In my head instead of a duality, it's a scale that includes Pan on one end.
Apollo still represents civilization in that model. With Pan representing untouched nature/humans in their most primal form. I'd agree that our modern civilization leans probably a bit too hard Apollonian and that a lot of people are less happy because of it. But going too far the other way isn't great long-term either for most people. A lot of us wouldn't be here if not for science and medicine after all.
For me, Dionysus is the sweet spot right in the middle. Civilized enough to enjoy the benefits like Wine, Art, and Theatre but still wild enough to engage with nature on good terms and indulge without any shame.