Birth of Tragedy

Nietzsche's first book — a controversial aesthetic theory arguing that Greek tragedy combined Apollonian form with Dionysian chaos, and that Socratic rationalism destroyed this productive tension.

Apollonian vs. Dionysian: the Apollonian principle (dream, form, individuation, beauty) and the Dionysian principle (intoxication, dissolution of the individual, ecstasy) as the two drives underlying Greek art. Greek tragedy: achieved when both were present — Dionysian music combined with Apollonian dramatic form. The Socratic murder of tragedy: the optimism of Socratic rationalism — the belief that thought can make the world right — destroyed the tragic sense. Wagner as the possibility of tragedy reborn.