The concept of Apollonian has a great presence in the thought of different philosophical authors, for example, Nietzsche uses the Greek dichotomy between Apollonian and Dionysian to refer to two very different margins of reality. The Apollonian frame represents light, order and beauty. On the contrary, the concept of Dionysian refers to darkness and disorder.
In Greek mythology, Apollo was the god of the Sun, hence he transmits great clarity and luminosity. On the contrary, Dionysus is the god of ecstasy and wine. Nietsche considers that the life of the human being also has moments of darkness that can be expressed through their Dionysian features (for example, the hidden secrets that a person tries not to reveal). The universe is made up of contrasts that are related to each other but also exclusive. For example, the apolinearness of light is opposed to the blackness of darkness.
Nietzsche's interpretation
The Greeks considered Apollo as the God of youth and art (such as poetry and music) since both youth and poetry and music transmit the light of perfection and order. The virtues represented by Apollo were very important for the Greeks because of their connection with happiness: measure, proportion and order that responds to the norm. Features that show an essence of the world and of life as a pleasant setting since no one is afraid in the light but in the dark.
For his part, Nietzsche reinterprets the concept of Apollonian and Dionysian in the light of a world in which there are also appearances, excesses, disorder, noise and darkness. That is to say, there is no purely rational and Apollonian world but there are also instinctive forces in life.
Apollonian beauty
From the aesthetic point of view of male beauty, the concept of Apollonian can also be used to praise a man's body that conveys the aesthetic and harmonic beauty of the dominant beauty canon in a historical context. A beauty that conveys physical perfection.
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