religious ecstasy

Following the week's topic of discussion (religion & sexual morality), today's posting would entail Dionysus, the ancient Greek god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy. He IS the major figure in Greek mythology. To the Romans he is Bacchus; the God of frenzy, patron deity of agriculture and theatre. So strong is his influence on mortals that there is a cult dedicated to him and each spring, they would celebrate in a festival for 5 whole days.

What interest me is philosophical and literary concept between Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo is the God of the Sun celebrating lightness, music, and poetry, while Dionysus is the God of wine, ecstasy and intoxication. Modern literary have contrasting concepts between Apollo and Dionysus - wholeness vs. individualism, light vs. darkness and civilization vs. primal nature. Interestingly, the ancient Greeks did not consider the two as opposites or rivals. It seems that modern Western philosophical and literary figures have used this concept to invoke in their own search of making sense of the world. One such figure, is Friedrich Nietzsche in his work The Birth of Tragedy whereby the tragic hero of the drama, the main protagonist, struggles to make order (Apollonian) of his unjust and chaotic (Dionysian) fate, though he dies unfulfilled in the end. Another leading figure is Ayn Rand for her best-selling novel, The Fountainhead - a classic for all Architects to read.

A character trait for an Apollonian:
Thinking, self-controlled, rational, logical, ordered, the dream state, principle of individuation, value for human order and culture, celebration of appearance/illusion, plastic & visual arts, human being(s) as artists.

A character trait for a Dionysian:
Feeling, passionate, irrational, instinctual, chaotic, state of intoxication, wholeness of existence, celebration of nature, brute realism & absurdity, music, human being(s) as the work and glorification of art.

In Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia, the two concepts is split into gender with Dionysian associated with females, wild/chaotic nature, and unconstrained sex/procreation, and Apollonian with males, clarity, rationality/reason, and solidity, along with the goal of oriented progress. I can just imagine the anger and hear the screaming feminist out there asking for my head! Ladies, before you start calling me names, Paglia is a woman. So please stand down! To her, she attributes the progress of civilization to males (Apollonian) revolting against the Dionysian forces of females. This chaotic state is overpowering and alluring at the same time, and the turn away from it towards socially ordered virtues accounts for the prevalence of asexuality and homosexuality in geniuses and in the most culturally prosperous places such as ancient Athens.

As much as I try to agree to Paglia, I think it's rather limiting to pigeon-hole gender in such a way. And I don't like pigeons. They are rats with wings especially the ones you get in Trafalgar Square. Awful creatures. Now, woodpigeon is another thing altogether - they are delicious!