I believe the concept of Apollo and Dionysus can be best described in a social sense. Apollo would be the part of a person that wants to spend the night alone in his or her apartment curled up next to a fire listening to some Beethoven or Brahms while reading Tolstoy's War and Peace. Dionysus on the other hand is the part of a person that wants to start drinking and partying around three in the afternoon and wants to make drunken phone calls to old boyfriends or girlfriends. The question is, are these approaches to art credible? I have come to the conclusion that these approaches are not credible in the evaluation of music and other various forms of art .
The contrast of Apollo and Dionysus is what makes this discussion so interesting. Apollo lived in the heavens with the rest of the gods representing a very serene and peaceful lifestyle. Dionysus on the other hand dwelled on the lower ground with the mortals, in the common. This contrast between heaven and hell can be seen today in our churches. Everything beautiful and calming such as stain glass windows are set up high and out of reach. The organ pipes are soaring towards the sky in an effort to be closer to the heavens. The sacred animals of each god present us with another set of polar characteristics. Apollo's sacred animals are the swan and dolphin. Dionysus has the bull, snake, lion and panther as his sacred animals (Hayashida). Anyone can see or hear the Apollonian influence in the classic ballet Swan Lake, bearing the name of Apollo's scared animal. Dionysus" animals are all conceived to be ferocious and mean-spirited, ready to rip a man apart which is consistent with the myth that Dionysus was once ripped to shreds and everything was eaten except his heart (Gross). Another concept that each god represents is that of Romanticism vs. Classicism. Romanticism is the heightened interest in nature, individual expression and emotion while Classicism is based more on simple forms and restraint.