Friedrich Nietzsche analyzed Greek tragedy through the lens of Apollonian and Dionysian elements. The Apollonian represents reason, form, and individuality while the Dionysian represents intoxication, passion, and a loss of self. For Nietzsche, true Greek tragedy arose from a balance of these two elements, as seen in the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles. He believed later tragedians like Euripides lost this balance by emphasizing rationalism over ecstatic elements.

1.  dichotomy, based on certain features of
ancient Greek mythology
 In Greek mythology, Apollo and
Dionysus are both sons of Zeus. Apollo
is the god of the Sun, dreams, and
reason while Dionysus is the god of
wine, ecstasy, and intoxication. The
Greeks did not consider the two gods to
be opposites or rivals.

5. Nietzsche’s Major Premise:
 the fusion of Dionysian and Apollonian
artistic impulses forms dramatic arts, or
tragedies. This fusion has not been
achieved since the ancient Greek
tragedians. The works of Aeschylus and
Sophocles represent the apex of artistic
creation, the true realization of tragedy; it
is with Euripides, he states, that tragedy
begins its decline, deterioration, downfall,
death. Nietzsche objects to Euripides' use
of Socratic rationalism in his tragedies,
claiming that the infusion of ethics and
reason robs tragedy of its foundation,
namely the fragile balance of the Dionysian
and Apollonian.

6.  Apollonian and Dionysian are terms used
by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy to
designate the two central principles in
Greek culture. The Apollonian, which
corresponds to the “principle of
individuation”, is the basis of all analytic
distinctions. Everything that is part of the
unique individuality of man or thing is
Apollonian in character; all types of form
or structure are Apollonian, since form
serves to define or individualize that which
is formed; thus, sculpture is the most
Apollonian of the arts, since it relies
entirely on form for its effect. Rational
thought is also Apollonian since it is
structured and makes distinctions.

7.  The Dionysian is directly opposed to the
Apollonian. Drunkenness and madness
are Dionysian because they break down
a man's individual character; all forms
of enthusiasm and ecstasy are
Dionysian, for in such states man gives
up his individuality and submerges
himself in a greater whole: music is the
most Dionysian of the arts, since it
appeals directly to man's instinctive,
chaotic emotions and not to his formally
reasoning mind.

8.  Nietzsche believed that both forces
were present in Greek tragedy, and
that the true tragedy could only be
produced by the tension between
them. He used the names Apollonian
and Dionysian for the two forces
because Apollo, as the sun-god,
represents light, clarity, and form,
whereas Dionysus, as the wine-god,
represents drunkenness and ecstasy.

9.  Friedrich Nietzsche used the term in his book The Birth of
Tragedy to describe one of the two opposing tendencies or
elements in Greek tragedy. According to Nietzsche, the
Apollonian attributes are reason, culture, harmony, and
restraint. These are opposed to the Dionysian
characteristics of excess, irrationality, lack of discipline,
and unbridled passion. The Apollonian and Dionysian
coalesce to create the tragic story, with the Apollonian
tendency represented by the dialogue and the Dionysian
by the dithyrambic choruses. The drama's exhibition of the
phenomena of suffering individuals (Apollonian elements)
forces upon the audience the struggle, “the pain, the
destruction of phenomena,” which in turn communicates
“the exuberant fertility of the universal.” The spectators
then become, as it were, one with the infinite primordial joy
in existence, and we anticipate, in Dionysian ecstasy, the
indestructibility and eternity of this joy.

10.  Greek tragedy was the result of a
fusion of Dionysian and Apollonian
elements.

11.  The two elements of tragedy, says Nietzsche,
are the Apollonian (related to the Greek god
Apollo, here used as a symbol of measured
restraint) and the Dionysian (from Dionysus, the
Greek god of ecstasy). His conception of the
Apollonian is the equivalent of what
Schopenhauer called the individual
phenomenon—the particular chance, error, or
man, the individuality of which is merely a mask
for the essential truth of reality which it
conceals. The Dionysian element is a sense of
universal reality, which, according to
Schopenhauer, is experienced after the loss of
individual egoism. The “Dionysian ecstasy,” as
defined by Nietzsche, is experienced “not as
individuals but as the one living being, with
whose creative joy we are united.”

12.  The drama's exhibition of the phenomena
of suffering individuals (Apollonian
elements) forces upon the audience “the
struggle, the pain, the destruction of
phenomena,” which in turn communicates
“the exuberant fertility of the universal.”
The spectators then “become, as it were,
one with the infinite primordial joy in
existence, and . . . we anticipate, in
Dionysian ecstasy, the indestructibility and
eternity of this joy.” Thus, he says, there is
a desire “to see tragedy and at the same
time to get beyond all seeing . . . to hear
and at the same time long to get beyond all
hearing.”