Dionysian

Dionysian
/duy'euh nish"euhn, -nis"ee euhn, -nuy"see-/, adj.
1. of, pertaining to, or honoring Dionysus or Bacchus.
2. recklessly uninhibited; unrestrained; undisciplined; frenzied; orgiastic.
[1600-10; DIONYS(US) + -IAN]

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      characteristic of the god Dionysus or the cult of worship of Dionysus; specifically, of a sensuous, frenzied, or orgiastic character. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (Nietzsche, Friedrich) used the terms Dionysian and Apollonian to analyze and explain the character of Greek tragedy in his book The Birth of Tragedy. According to Nietzsche, Greek tragedy was the result of a fusion of Dionysian and Apollonian elements.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Dionysian — Di o*ny sian, a. Relating to Dionysius, a monk of the 6th century; as, the Dionysian, or Christian, era. [1913 Webster] {Dionysian period}, a period of 532 years, depending on the cycle of the sun, or 28 years, and the cycle of the moon, or 19… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Dionysian — of or pertaining to Dionysos, Greek god of wine and revelry, identified with Roman Bacchus. His name is of unknown origin. Or in reference to historical men named Dionysius such as the tyrants of Syracuse and especially Dionysius Exiguus (see A.D …   Etymology dictionary

  • Dionysian — [dī΄ənish′ən; dī΄ənis′ē ən, dī΄əniz′ē ən] adj. 1. Dionysiac 2. of the orgiastic nature of the Dionysia; wild, frenzied, and sensuous: distinguished from APOLLONIAN 3. of any of several historical figures named Dionysus …   English World dictionary

  • Dionysian — See Apollonian/Dionysian …   Philosophy dictionary

  • Dionysian period — Dionysian Di o*ny sian, a. Relating to Dionysius, a monk of the 6th century; as, the Dionysian, or Christian, era. [1913 Webster] {Dionysian period}, a period of 532 years, depending on the cycle of the sun, or 28 years, and the cycle of the moon …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Dionysian imitatio — is the influential literary method of imitation as formulated by Greek author Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the first century BCE, which conceived it as the rhetoric practice of emulating, adaptating, reworking and enriching a source text by an… …   Wikipedia

  • Dionysian Mysteries — Dionysus in Bacchus by Caravaggio The Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual of ancient Greece and Rome which used intoxicants and other trance inducing techniques (like dance and music) to remove inhibitions and social constraints, liberating the… …   Wikipedia

  • Dionysian period — ▪ chronology also called  Great Paschal period , or  Victorian period        in the Julian calendar, a period of 532 years covering a complete cycle of New Moons (19 years between occurrences on the same date) and of dominical letters i.e.,… …   Universalium

  • Dionysian — adjective Date: 1607 1. a. of or relating to Dionysius b. of or relating to the theological writings once mistakenly attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite 2. a. devoted to the worship of Dionysus …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Dionysian — adjective Of or pertaining to …   Wiktionary

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