Nietzsche’s Musical Affect and the Dancing Satyr

Abstract

Nietzsche’s fascination with the Dionysian is something which he held for the whole of his academic life. The Dionysian became the image for Nietzsche’s quest to dismantle the Platonic Christian world view in favor of a life affirming philosophy. The Dionysian became the embodiment of his life affirming principle and for most of Nietzsche’s thinking he would play around with this metaphor, but the core of this image never changed in any radical direction. Instead the Dionysian remained a constant within Nietzsche’s thinking and as he matured as a thinker the Dionysian matured along with him.