ABSTRACT
In 'The Birth of Tragedy', Dionysus appears as one of the essential protagonists on Nietzsche's philosophical stage. Dionysus is the god of music, which Nietzsche, following Schopenhauer, believes to be the true language of the universal. In 'The Birth of Tragedy' and in subsequent works, Nietzsche expresses his basic intuition, but this remains hidden by the metaphysics of the artist inherited from Schopenhauer and stamped with the influence of Hegel. Understanding of the god's nature escapes Nietzsche the philosopher, but constitutes the secret of Nietzsche the disciple of Dionysus. Eternal Recurrence is one of the god's revelations, which come to Nietzsche in the form of an ecstatic experience, but whose deeper meaning remains hidden from him when he tries to express it, compare Eternal Recurrence. It is also why, when Nietzsche no longer kept a philosopher's distance and the philosophical myth combined with his personal myth, he was consumed by the uncontrollable violence of the sacred.
