9 - Thomas H. Brobjer - Tragedy

278 Thomas H. Brobjer

BEITRGE ZUR QUELLENFORSCHUNG

ABHANDLUNGEN

THOMAS H. BROBJER

SOURCES OF AND INFLUENCESON NIETZSCHES THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY

The Birth of Tragedy is dated as published in 1872, and the first copies of the bookarrived to Nietzsche the first days of January. Some commentators have assumed thatNietzsche wrote the study in 1871 and it is true that he worked intensively on it then.However, it is well known that for most of its content it is the first half of the year 1870which is seminal. He then held two lectures, Das griechische Musikdrama (18 January1870) and Socrates und die Tragdie (1 February 1870), and wrote the essay Die diony-sische Weltanschauung (summer 1870). These works contain most of the fundamentalideas of The Birth of Tragedy; the first contains much of the general content of the book,especially about the origin of tragedy (GT 510) and the Wagnerian view that Greektragedy should be seen as a Gesamtkunstwerk. The second lecture contains much,almost word for word, about the decline of tragedy due to Socrates (and Euripides),(GT 1115), while the essay Die dionysische Weltanschauung contains much of thetexts of these two lectures, and adds the Leimotif of The Birth of Tragedy, the dichotomybetween the Apollinian and the Dionysian (GT 14).1

1 During the first three years as professor in Basel, 18691871, Nietzsche read much literaturerelating to philosophical aspects of Greek tragedy in relation to his work on Die Geburt der Tra-gdie. His reading about tragedy was extensive. Two strands can be observed in this reading:works dealing with different aspects of tragedy, especially its aesthetic significance, such as, forexample, works by Schlegel, Mller, Alberti, Wartenburg, Schiller, Vischer and Grote. The otherstrand relates to the more specific question of Aristotles view of tragedy Nietzsche read, apartfrom Aristotle himself (whose collected works in German he bought in 1868, but he also pos-sessed several individual volumes), a number of studies of this question; Teichmller, Bernays,Oncken, Spengel, Reinkens and heard the newly installed professor of philosophy in Basel,Rudolf Eucken, in 1871 speak about Aristotles relevance for us today.Another type of sources which Nietzsche may have read, and which often contained discussionsof Greek tragedy, are journals and especially philosophical journals. For example, the journal DerGedanke. Philosophische Zeitschrift. Organ der Philosophischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin was edited and pub-lished by C. L. Michelet in 9 volumes between 1861 and 1873, with a general left Hegelian em-phasis. The journal had a rather strong emphasis on Hegel, with some sympathy for materialismand occasionally expressing critique of Schopenhauer. A number of articles contain differentinterpretations and discussions of tragedy. I have been unable to find any definite evidence that

Sources of and Influences on Nietzsches The Birth of Tragedy 279

However, several of the fundamental ideas of The Birth of Tragedy can be traced furtherback in time. Nietzsche discussed several of these ideas and themes with his friendRomundt during the winter 1868/69. We can see from Romundts letter that Nietzschealready then emphasized music as the key to understanding tragedy, the significance ofSophocles and expressed a desire for a re-birth of Sophocles, discussed pessimism andthe importance of Wagner and Schopenhauer:

Ich sehe berall die Wirkung des Verkehrs mit Dir, mein lieber Freund [] aber dieAussaat des Winters ist in diesem schnen Frhling aufgekeimt, die Hlmchen wehenim Winde das ganze Feld bedeckend und ich kann die Krner nicht mehr finden. Estnt wie eine schne halb verklungene Sage von vergangenem und wiedererstande-nem Pessimismus, vom Drama der Zukunft, in dem Sophocles wiedergeboren wirdund Laube aus dem Tempel treibt unter unserm begeisterten Zuruf, von der Musik alsdem Schlssel aller Kunstphilosophie, von Richard Wagner und Arthur Schopen-hauer und von unzhligem Anderem zu mir herber, es ist ein groes Concert, in demich als schlechter Musikant das Einzelne nicht mehr deutlich unterscheide, nur derConcertmeister steht handgreiflich vor mir und in ihm erkenne ich Dich wieder, meinlieber Nietzsche.2

However, the origin of Nietzsches ideas on tragedy and the content of The Birth ofTragedy goes still further back in time, at least until his last year at Schulpforta, the springof 1864. This has not been sufficiently noticed and realized, and no conclusion from thisearly development has been drawn. Such an early dating of many of the fundamental ideasof The Birth of Tragedy has implications for our understanding of it and for the possibleinfluences on the work. I will here discuss some previously unrecognized sources whichstrongly influenced his writing of the school essay about Sophocles, which foreshadowsmuch of the content of The Birth of Tragedy. Thereafter I will discuss some direct sourceson The Birth of Tragedy.

The origin of Nietzsches view of tragedy was developed while writing his commen-tary on the first choir-song of Sophocles King Oedipus with the title Primum Oedipodisregis carmen choricum, written as a school essay at Pforta, in Latin, Greek and German,during the spring of 1864.3 Here Nietzsche discusses, among other things, the origins ofGreek drama. He emphasizes the difference between German and Greek drama and theimportance of the choir and music in ancient times; indeed, he argues that Greek drama

Nietzsche read this journal. It contains a number of articles which could have been of interestto him if he had seen it, especially in volume 2 (1862) with a number of articles on Greek phil-osophy, including about Heraclitus in issue one, and four articles about aesthetics and tragedy inissue two, including Hegels Ansichten ber die antike Tragdie, in England anerkannt and Diealte franzsische Tragdie und die Wagnersche Musik. Later volumes, but published beforeNietzsche wrote his Die Geburt der Tragdie, contain several potentially relevant articles by Bou-mann, for example, Ueber den Charakter des Sophokleischen Knigs Oedipus, Iphigeneiain Tauris and a series of articles under the general title Ueber des Wesen der Tragdie. Thesearticles show, at least, that Nietzsche was far from alone among German thinkers at this time toshow intensive interest in Greek tragedy.

2 Romundts letter to Nietzsche, 4 May 1869, KGB II.2, No. 3, p. 8.3 BAW 2, pp. 364399. Nietzsche had earlier, in November 1862, written a school essay entitled

Primi Ajacis stasimi interpretatio et versio cum brevi praefatione, BAW 2, pp. 155164, butthat essay is much less important and does not foreshadow The Birth of Tragedy in any more directway.


had its origin in lyric and music.4 He even foreshadows his great debt to Wagner, in spite ofthe fact that the essay was written before he became a dedicated Wagnerian. AlthoughNietzsche has not yet began to use the dichotomy between the Apollinian and the Diony-sian (based as it is on a Kantian and Schopenhauerian two-world view which he hadnot yet encountered), both deities are discussed, and associated with vision and musicrespectively.5 We thus see here many of the fundamental themes of Nietzsches first book,Die Geburt der Tragdie aus dem Geiste der Musik. This has received almost no attention in thesecondary literature.6

I will below briefly summarize the most frequently discussed influences on Nietz-sches The Birth of Tragedy, and thereafter discuss a few other sources to this work and to theschool essay which have either not been discussed at all, or only received very little atten-tion.

Summary of the Generally Known and Conventionally Emphasized Influences onThe Birth of Tragedy.

The content, reception and influence of The Birth of Tragedy have received much atten-tion for well over a hundred years. Much less interest has been directed towards thesources of and influences on the work, although such considerations can help us under-stand both its content and its reception better.7 In brief summary, the major influences on

4 BAW 2, p. 374.5 BAW 2, pp. 38082 and 398.6 This important school essay is, for example, not mentioned in Ries, Wiebrecht: Nietzsche fr

Anfnger: Die Geburt der Tragdie. Mnchen 1999, who instead begins his discussion in 1870.It is not mentioned in the recent and important works by Safranski, Latacz or Cancik. The onlybrief discussions I am aware of is in Janz, Curt Paul: Friedrich Nietzsche. Biographie. Vol. 1.Mnchen, Wien 1978, pp. 121f. and in von Reibnitz, Barbara: Ein Kommentar zu FriedrichNietzsche, Die Geburt der Tragdie aus dem Geiste der Musik (Kap. 112). Stuttgart, Weimar1992, where she briefly discusses it. After mentioning the title of two of Nietzsches Pforta es-says, she continues: Hier ist festzuhalten, da Nietzsche fr seinen ersten Baseler Vortrag berDas Griechische Musikdrama diese Hausarbeit [i. e. the Primum Oedipodis regis carmenchoricum] als eine Vorarbeit benutzen konnte. Nach sorgfltiger Einzelinterpretation des erstenChorliedes fhrt er die Tragdie unter ausdrcklichen Verweis auf Wagner als musikalischesKunstwerk vor und formuliert den Grundgedanken der Entstehung der Tragdie aus demGeiste der Musik. [Footnote: Vgl. bes. den zweiten Teil seines Kommentars: Gedanken berdie chorische Musik in der Tragoedie.] Wichtige Elemente der in GT zugrundegelegten Auf-fassung von Entwicklung, Wesen und Wirkung der Tragdie sind 1864 bereits entwickelt. [Foot-note: Bemerkenswert ist Nietzsches Versuch, durch Analogien, Verweise, Zitate (Shakespeare,Goethe, Hlderlin, Wagner) Antikes an Modernes zu knpfen. Sein Ehrgeiz geht nicht allein aufeine schulmig korrekte, altphilologisch-immanente Behandlung des gestellten Themas, ersucht vielmehr, einen individuellen, von der Moderne aus interessanten Geschichtspunkt zufinden.] (Ibd., p. 11). I am not aware that the school essay has been mentioned, analysed or dis-cussed in any study in the English language. It is not mentioned in Lenson or Silk and Stern.

7 The great exception here is again von Reibnitz: Ein Kommentar zu Friedrich Nietzsche, loc. cit.,also the classical scholar Joachim Latacz important discussion of The Birth of Tragedys relation tothe classical scholarship of its time in Fruchtbares rgernis. Nietzsches Geburt der Tragdie und diegrzistische Tragdienforschung (lecture held in Basel 1994, published as a booklet in Basel 1998), andin much more general terms (and based on the two mentioned books), Ries: Nietzsche fr An-fnger, loc. cit.


Nietzsches The Birth of Tragedy can be divided into four main groups; classical scholarship,philosophical discussions, Wagner and a miscellaneous group of romantic stimuli.

(i) The influence from classical scholarship. There had been a long interest in theproblem of the origin of tragedy in classical scholarship before Nietzsche wrote his book.Already then the conventional view claimed that tragedy had arisen from the cult ofDionysus, stressed the importance of the Dithyrambs and of the choir as original, andalso of the importance of music. It has often later not been realized to what a large degreeNietzsche merely followed the conventional view among classicists in his discussions ofthe origin of tragedy. Much of the lack of response to The Birth of Tragedy among classicistswas simply due to that it did not contain anything new from a narrow classical scholarshippoint of view.8 Nietzsche used and was influenced in these general respects by severalstandard works about Greek literature, primarily K. O. Mllers Geschichte der griechischenLitteratur (Breslau, 2nd edition, 1857) and G. Bernhardys Grundri der grichischen Litteratur(Halle 183645), in two/three volumes, later revised and published in several further edi-tions. These works also contained discussions of the nature and importance of ancientmusic, which Nietzsche supplemented by a large number of studies (this was a themeon which he lectured to his students and contributed to as a classical scholar), especiallythe works by A. Rossbach and R. Westphal. Of special relevance for Nietzsches view ofexstasis as an important ingredient in Greek tragedy, and for his critical discussion of Aris-totles view of tragedy, was his reading of Jacob Bernays and Yorck von Wartenburg,whom he used extensively but did not name and acknowledge.9 This does not mean thatthe book was not in several ways provocative for classicists. So it was, for example, in its

8 Nietzsche hat diese Einzelerkenntnisse weder bestritten noch gar bekmpft, sondern er hat siebernommen und als selbstverstndlich vorausgesetzt. Insoweit bedeutete seine eigene Schriftweder eine Revolution noch berhaupt eine Neuerung. [Latacz note: Gerade daraus erklrt sichja die langdauernde Ignorierung der Nietzscheschen Tragdienentstehungstheorie in der Fach-wissenschaft: Der eigentlich fachwissenschaftliche Teil seines Buches bot nichts Neues, der mitNeuerung aufwartende Teil konnte nicht als fachwissenschaftlich gelten.] Dies trifft auch fr dasvon Nietzsche so ausserordentlich stark betonte Element Musik zu. [] Dass am Anfang derTragdie die Musik stand, was damals eine allgemein geteilte berzeugung, nicht nur unterFachgrzisten, sondern auch im gebildeten Publikum. Latacz: Fruchtbares rgernis, loc. cit.,pp. 19f. That this is correct, can be seen in the review of the first edition of The Birth of Tragedy ofWilamowitz, who claims that it is not a work of classical scholarship: In der tat liegt der haupt-anstoss des buches in ton und tendenz. Herr Nietzsche tritt ja nicht als wissenschaftlicher for-scher auf; auf dem wege der intuition erlangte weisheit wird [] dargeboten. [] er wollte jaeben nichts von historie und kritik, von so genanter weltgeschichte wissen, er wollte ein dio-nysisch-apollinisch kunstwek, ein metaphysisches trostmittel schaffen, seine behauptungenhtten zwar nicht die gemeine tageswirklichkeit, aber die hhere realitt der traumwelt. Wila-mowitz, republished in Grnder, Karlfried (ed.): Der Streit um Nietzsches Die Geburt der Tra-gdie. Hildesheim 1989, p. 29 and 55.

9 We also know that Nietzsche used some further more philological works for the construction ofhis The Birth of Tragedy, for Nietzsche mentions this in a long letter to Rohde, 16 July 1872, KSB 4,No. 239, in a discussion of how to respond to Wilamowitz critical review of the work. Nietzschethere mentions the following works:Welcker, F. G.: Griechische Gtterlehre. Gttingen 1857. Vol. 1, p. 262 (Nietzsche borrowed thisbook in 1871.)Curtius, G.: Grundzge der griechischen Etymologie. Leipzig, 2nd edition 1866, pp. 201f.Westphal, R.: Geschichte der alten und mitteralterlichen Musik. Breslau 1865, pp. 115137.Westphal, R.: Griechische Rhytmik und Harmonik nebst der Geschichte der drei musischen Dis-ciplinen. Leipzig, 2nd edition 1862, p. 50. This book is still in Nietzsches private library.


critique of Aristotles view of tragedy, in its praise of pessimism, in presenting a view ofthe Greek far from the harmonious picture painted of them by Winckelmann andGoethe, for its severe critique of Socrates and Plato (and of scholarship and science, in-cluding classical scholarship), for its critique of Euripides and for going against the posi-tivism which was prevalent in classical scholarship at the time. However, the most prob-lematic and provocative aspect of the book lay in its inspired manner of arguing andbuilding on metaphysical and philosophical (Schopenhauer), contemporary musical(Wagner) and romantic notions, concepts and assumptions.

(ii) The influence from philosophy. Schopenhauers influence on The Birth of Tragedywas enormous. This is true for its overall conception as well as for its style and much of itsterminology. Especially prominent is Schopenhauers philosophy of art and his emphasison the importance of music as the highest form of art. Also of importance is the two-world construction (a true metaphysical world contra our apparent empirical world)which constitutes the background to the Apollinian-Dionysian dichotomy.10 Kant, Scho-penhauers predecessor, may also have contributed to this view. Kant is also likely to haveinfluenced Nietzsche to accept the view that there are limits to our ability and capacity torationally know, leaving room for Dionysian wisdom.

(iii) The influence of Wagner. The debt to Wagner is visible almost everywhere in TheBirth of Tragedy. The book is dedicated to him, his view of drama and music, and of opera as aGesamtkunstwerk, is present throughout the study, and the last third consists of a homage toWagner and the future rebirth of tragedy, which Nietzsche claimed that Wagner had began.

As shown by W. Schadewaldt, Wagner had an advanced knowledge and understandingof Greek tragedy (and explicitly attempted to revive and learn from it), so that even inmany of the more specialized aspects touching on classical scholarship he seems to haveinfluenced Nietzsche (see the discussion of Wagners influence at the end of this article).

(iv) The influence of romantic ideas. Nietzsche, in the spirit of Schopenhauer andWagner, read and was influenced by a number of romantic philosophers and thinkers,such as Schelling, F. Schlegel, Schiller, Hlderlin (discussed separately below) and perhapsHegel (who wrote extensively on Greek tragedy). A closely related group to these is the

We also know that he used Wagners friend, Semper, Gottfried: Der Stil in den technischen undtektonischen Knsten, oder praktische Aesthetik. Leipzig 1860, which he read, and quoted inDas griechische Musikdrama (1869), and sent a copy of it to Cosima. Das griechische Musikdrama,KSA 1, p. 522 (quoted from vol. 1, page 75 of Sempers book). See also Nachla 1869, KSA 7,1[19+21] (vol. 1, pages 214219).See also Rapp, Moritz: Geschichte des griechischen Schauspiels. Tbingen 1862, read in 1869.Nietzsche read and quoted this work in Nachla 1869, KSA 7, 1[78]. The quotation is from page176.

10 See, for example, GT 16, where Nietzsche emphasizes the importance of Schopenhauer: itmay be well to disclose the origin of this insight [] I see Apollo as the transfiguring genius ofthe principium individuationis through which alone the redemption in illusion is truly to be ob-tained; while by the mystical triumphant cry of Dionysus the spell of individuation is broken, andthe way lies open to the Mother of Being, to the innermost heart of things. This extraordinarycontrast, which streches like a yawning gulf between plastic art as the Apollinian, and music asthe Dionysian art, has revealed itself to only one of the great thinkers, so such an extent that,even without this clue to the symbolism of the Hellenic divinities, he conceded to music a char-acter and an origin different from all the other arts, because, unlike them, it is not a copy of thephenomenon, but an immediate copy of the will itself, and therefore complements everythingphysical in the world and every phenomenon by representing what is metaphysical, the thing in itself.(Schopenhauer, Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, I, p. 310.)


group of romantic classicists, such as F. Creuzer, F. G. Welcker, J. Burckhardt andJ. J. Bachofen. Several of these thinkers seem to have influenced Nietzsches view ofGreek mythology and especially of Dionysus. Already Wilamowitz recognizedNietzsches debt to this romantic tradition (apart from Schopenhauer and Wagner, whoalso belong to the same tradition).11

A study of the dependence of and influence on The Birth of Tragedy from this interest-ing group of romantic thinkers (including a few other names not mentioned above),both as a group and individually, ought to be performed and is likely to yield interestingnew results suitably fitting to a title of the sort The Romantic Origin of Nietzsches TheBirth of Tragedy.12 Nietzsches debt to this romantic tradition is likely to have been a majorreason for the negative (or non-response) to The Birth of Tragedy among classical scholars,who at this time generally held anti-romantic and positivistic sympathies.

Most general discussions of Nietzsches The Birth of Tragedy have concentrated on its de-parture from the neo-classical views of the harmonic and rational Greeks, expressed by, forexample, Winckelmann, Goethe and Lessing. Already Wilamowitz points out as it seems,correctly that Nietzsche had not even read Winckelmann. Nietzsche himself points at thisdeviation from the conventional view. However, although the neo-classical view may havebeen conventional among the educated public, many specialists and classical scholars hadleft, or partially left it and those mentioned above (in the first group) had gone furthestaway from it. In comparison to these classical scholars, especially several of the romanti-cally inclined ones, Nietzsches originality was less dramatic than commonly assumed.13

11 Wilamowitz writes: ich dchte, die zeit lge hinter uns, wo in der archologischen erklrung mitnonnischen wesen, gar Aion und Eniautos, spuk getrieben ward. Wer aber, wofern er es mit un-serer wissenschaft ernst meint, muss es nicht schmachvoll oder lcherlich finden, dass heutenoch in Saint-Croix-Creuzerscher weise geredet wird von wundervollen mythen in den myste-rien, vom brausenden jubelgesang der epopten, von einer dionysischen weltbetrachtung, die sichvor den kritischen barbaren, Euripides und Sokrates, in die mystischen fluten des geheimcultsflchtet, und in den wunderbarsten metamorphosen und entartungen nicht aufhrt, ernstere na-turen an sich zu ziehen (53. 69. 94 [these are Wilamowitz references to pages in the original edi-tion of The Birth of Tragedy]) also Schopenhauersche philosophie, Wagnersche musik, wo mglichNietzschische philologie ist jetzt einmal des hierophanten mystische weisheit! Quoted fromGrnder (ed.): Der Streit, loc. cit., pp. 42f. (which are equivalent to pp. 19f. in Wilamowitz orig-inal publication).

12 For a few of them, individual studies of Nietzsches relation to them have been made. Referencesto such studies, together with her own interesting comments, can be found in Reibnitz study.See also the important work by Ernst Behler, not mentioned in the index of Reibnitz work (buttwo of his articles are listed in the bibliography): Behler, Ernst: Die Auffassung des Diony-sischen durch die Brder Schlegel und Friedrich Nietzsche. In: Nietzsche-Studien 12 (1983),pp. 335354; id.: Friedrich Schlegels Rede ber die Mythologie im Hinblick auf Nietzsche. In:Nietzsche-Studien 8 (1979), pp. 182209; id.: Sokrates und die griechische Tragdie. Nietzscheund die Brder Schlegel ber den Ursprung der Moderne. In: Nietzsche-Studien 18 (1989),pp. 141157; id.: Nietzsche und die Frhromantische Schule. In: Nietzsche-Studien 7 (1978),pp. 5996; id.; Nietzsche und die Antike. In: Nietzsche-Studien 26 (1997), pp. 514528 and id.:A.W. Schlegel and the Nineteenth-Century Damnatio of Euripides. In: Greek, Roman and By-zantine Studies 27 (1986), pp. 335368.

13 To take just one example, the recent article by Sweet, Dennis: The Birth of The Birth of Tragedy. In:Journal of the History of Ideas 60 (1999), pp. 345359, only discusses Nietzsches departurefrom the neo-classical ideal (Winckelmann and Lessing) and follows Nietzsches own statementsclosely. It therefore, although well argued and well written, contains nothing new at all, and sinceignoring the real context of Nietzsches thinking, becomes misleading.


Previously Unidentified Sources to and Influences on Nietzsches The Birth of Tragedy

I. Gustav Freytags Die Technik des Dramas (Leipzig 1863)

Gustav Freytag (18161895), German author, lecturer in German language andliterature and editor to the liberal nationalist journal Die Grenzboten in Leipzig, wrote sev-eral successful realistic novels, including Soll und Haben (1855) and Die verlorene Handschrift(1864), both which Nietzsche read with appreciation. More importantly for us, he alsowrote an empirically and theoretical study of drama, Die Technik des Dramas (1863), whichNietzsche read and used intensively in 1863.14 Later he would turn more critical towardFreytag and his liberal nationalism.

Much of the content of Nietzsches school essay is based on (and copied from) Gus-tav Freytags study Die Technik des Dramas, which is thus also an important source andstimulus for Nietzsches The Birth of Tragedy. Nietzsches essay is a long detailed discussionand analysis of the first choir of Sophocles King Oedipus, written in Latin, Greek and Ger-man. The theme was set by the teacher. It covers 38 printed pages in BAW, of which aboutthirteen are in German. In the original (which is to be found in the Goethe SchillerArchive in Weimar) it consists of a 72 page booklet, of which 69 pages have been used forthe essay by Nietzsche. The original contains the teachers comments, including fairlymany gut throughout the text, and an endcomment. Nietzsche received a 1, the high-est grade, for it. The text consists of a preface in Latin, then two commentary sectionsin Greek. Thereafter follows four more general sections in German. These are again fol-lowed by several sections in Latin, about 16 pages, twice briefly interjected by one or twopages in German. The four middle German section are entitled: III. Die Wirkung derTragoedie und ihr Plan; [IV.] Ueber den Prolog der Tragoedie; Altera commentarii pars:[I.] Gedanken ber die chorische Musik in der Tragoedie, mit Anwendung auf diesesChorlied and [II.] Das Schema des Chorliedes nach musikalischen Perioden (BAW 2,pp. 368380). These more general pages, written in German, are in important waysinfluenced (or copied from) three works by Dronke, Freytag and Brendel, without in anycase giving or indicating the sources. The section Die Wirkung der Tragoedie und ihrPlan begins with a definition of tragedy, and a general discussion of Sophocles and tra-gedy on one page, which is partly copied from, or follows closely, the work by Dronke(discussed below). He then discusses King Oedipus, and bases the discussion closely on,and excerpts from, Freytags Die Technik des Dramas. To show this, let me first quoteNietzsche, then Freytag:

In ihr finden sich Peripatie- Erkennungs- Pathosscenen, geschmckte Berichte derEndboten [] Prolog. Voraussetzung: Theben unter Oedipus in Pestzeit.Erregendes Moment: Der Mord des Laios soll bestrafft werden, damit die Stadt be-freit werde.Erste Stufe. Teiresias, von Oedipus gerufen, weigert sich den Spruch zu deuten undweist im doppelsinningen Wort auf den Mrder, im Zorne scheidend.15 [etc.]

14 Nietzsche lists it among the books he read most intensively in 1863 (BAW 2, p. 334). Other titleswhich Nietzsche mentions and which may be of relevance for his early view of tragedy are Bern-hardys history of Greek and Latin literature, Gervinus Shakespeare and Aeschylos, und ber ihn,which probably refers to, or includes, Dronkes work, discussed below. Freytags book is availablein an English translation, under the title Technique of the Drama (Chicago 1895).

15 BAW 2, p. 370.


Freytag, whom Nietzsche copied, had used almost exactly the same words:

Das kunstvollste Stck des Sophokles ist Knig Oedipus, es besitzt alle seinen Erfin-dungen der attischen Bhne, auer den Variationen in Gesngen und Chor, Peripa-tie-, Erkennungs-, Pathosscenen, geschmckten Bericht des Endboten. [] Der Pro-log fhrt smmtliche drei Schauspieler auf und berichtet auer den Voraussetzungen:Theben unter Oedipus in Pestzeit, auch das aufregende Moment, den Orakelspruch:Der Mord des Laios sollte bestraft werden, damit die Stadt Befreiung von der Seuchefinde. Von da steigt die Handlung in zwei Stufen. Erste: Teiresias, von Oedipus ge-rufen, weigert sich den Orakelspruch zu deuten, hart von dem heftigen Oedipus ver-dchtigt, weist er in doppeldeutingem Rthselwort auf den geheimnivollen Mrder,im Zorne scheidend.16 [etc.]

The first page of the section Ueber den Prolog der Tragoedie (BAW 2, p. 371) andGedanken ber die chorische Musik in der Tragoedie (BAW 2, pp. 374f.) seem also to beclosely inspired by Freytag.17 This is then followed by Nietzsches strongly pro-Wagnerclaims on page 376, which I suggest are inspired by his known reading of Franz Brendelsbook Geschichte der Musik in Italien, Deutschland und Frankreich. Von den ersten christlichen Zeitenbis auf die Gegenwart (Leipzig 1852, 2nd edition 1855), to be discussed below.

None of these sources are referred to or mentioned in the essay. In fact, oddlyenough, Nietzsche seems in the Latin preface to claim that he will not name the sourceshe has used: May all these spirits [genii] support me, whose help I trust in such a many-facetted work; whom it would not be correct to name, and whom I, even if it would be,would not dare to name, since they, when named, immediately disappear. Since, accordingto their mood and will, they come flying, without being forced or pleaded upon.18

There can be no doubt that Freytag played an important, but hidden, role for Nietz-sches early concept of tragedy and the writing of the school essay. The extent to which heis important for The Birth of Tragedy needs to be determined.19

II. Gustav Dronkes Die religisen und sittlichen Vorstellungendes Aeschylos und Sophocles ( Jahrbcher fr classische Philologie 1861)

A so far unrecognized, but important influence on Nietzsches essay Primum Oedi-podis regis carmen choricum, and thus probably also on his The Birth of Tragedy, is the little

16 Freytag, Gustav: Die Technik des Dramas. Leipzig 1863, pp. 148f.17 The former from ibd., pp. 103105 and 146, and the latter from p. 79.18 BAW 2, p. 364. Translated with the aid of Dr Johan Flemberg.19 Freytag says fairly little about Aeschylus, but regarded Sophocles as the greatest of the ancient

tragedians, and, like Nietzsche, held Euripides in much lower regard. In the school essay, theinfluence from Freytag seems to be only positive. Later, at the time of writing The Birth of Tragedy,he is likely to also have represented a position Nietzsche had left, and then argued against. Forexample, Freytag writes: So ist die Gesammtwirkung des Dramas, das Tragische, bei uns jenergriechischen verwandt, nicht mehr ganz dieselbe. Der Grieche lauschte in der grnen Jugendzeitdes Menschengeschlechts nach den Tnen des Prosceniums, erfllt von dem heiligen Rauschdes Dionysos, der Germane schaut in die Welt des Scheins, nicht weniger bewegt, aber als einHerr der Erde; das Menschengeschlecht hat seitdem eine lange Geschichte durchlebt, wir allesind durch historische Wissenschaft erzogen.


known classical scholar Gustav Dronkes Die religisen und sittlichen Vorstellungen des Aeschy-los und Sophocles, 116 pages, published as a separate volume for Jahrbcher fr classische Philo-logie in 1861. Nietzsche wished and received this book for his birthday in October 1863.His heavily annotated copy of the book is still in his library today.

Nietzsches essay begins with a preface in Latin, followed by two sections in Greekdealing with detailed commentaries. The third section, in German, broadens the scopeand is called: Die Wirkung der Tragoedie und ihr Plan. It begins with a quotation aboutthe nature of tragedy, taken from Dronke, p. 79, and the whole following page of dis-cussion seems to be a compilation from Dronke, pp. 7480.20

Nietzsches broader discussion of tragedy begins with the words:

Die Idee der Tragoedie ist also: die Gottheit verhngt oftmals dem Menschen Lei-den ohne sein Verschulden, nicht nach Willkr, sondern zur Wahrung einer sittlichenWeltordnung.Selbst diese Leiden die hier als unfreiwillige Schuld auftreten gengen einemhhern Plane [] Der Oedipus Knig verlangt aber in seiner Idee nothwendig denAbschlu und die Vershnung im Oedipus Coloneus; [Nietzsche discusses that Oedi-pus Rex is not self-sufficient and connects it with Oedipus Colonus several times onp. 369] [] [Nietzsche refers to Oedipus as the] groe Dulder [].21

This, and much of the discussion on the following page, is taken from Dronke, whowrites:

Die unfreiwillige Schuld ist und hierin liegt der Kern der Sophokleischen Vorstel-lung ein unverschuldetes Leiden, welches die Gottheit verhngt. [] Die Gottheitverhngt diesem wie jenem Leiden ohne sein Verschulden. Aber das Walten derselbenist kein willkrliches, sondern hat die Wahrung einer sittlichen Weltordnung zumZwecke. (p. 79)

A little earlier in the text Dronke had written:

Freilich der Schlu des Knig Oedipus gibt uns keine klare Antwort. [] Der Dichterweist hiermit nachdrcklich darauf hin, da das sittliche und religise Problem,welches die Geschichte des Oedipus bieten, in dem Knig Oedipus seine Lsungnoch nicht gefunden, sondern diese jenseits des ersten Oedipus zu suchen sei. Er ver-weist uns hiermit offenbar auf den Oedipus auf Kolonos. (p. 73, and repeated in dif-ferent words on p. 76) [] [Dronke refers to Oedipus as] den schwergeprftenDulder (p. 74)

Another possible source on Nietzsches school essay Primum Oedipodis regiscarmen choricum, apart from Freytag, Dronke and Brendel (discussed below in relationto Wagner) and thus probably also on The Birth of Tragedy is A. Schlls GrndlicherUnterricht ber die Tetralogie des attischen Theaters und die Kompositionsweise des Sophokles (Leipzig1859).22

20 Dronke, Gustav: Die religisen und sittlichen Vorstellungen des Aeschylos und Sophocles( Jahrbcher fr classische Philologie 1861), pp. 7283 covers the following three chapters in thebook: Oedipus-Schuldfrage, Gegensatz von unfreiwilliger Irrung und dmonischer Verblen-dung sittliche Weltordnung and Oedipus auf Kolonos.

21 BAW 2, pp. 368f.22 We do not know for certain that Nietzsche read this work by Schll, but in March 1864, Pinder

asks Nietzsche to return books he had borrowed, among them Schll.


III. Rheinisches Museum fr Philologie

A major influence on The Birth of Tragedy is Nietzsches reading of a number of relevantarticles in the classical journal Rheinisches Museum fr Philologie. Nietzsche wrote or com-piled an index to it, consisting of 176 dense pages, at the time he wrote and conceivedThe Birth of Tragedy, which was published as a separate volume in 1871/72.23 It covers vol-umes 124 of the new series, 18421869, of the Rheinisches Museum fr Philologie, consist-ing together of about 720 articles, 1500 shorter contributions (Miscellen) and over 15000pages.24 He worked on it for a long period of time, from 1867 to the end of 1871, most in-tensively during 1868 and 1869, with some additional work later, including much proof-reading in 1870/71. The final index which was printed as a separate issue is dated 1871,but seems to have been distributed early in 1872.

After it appeared, Nietzsche was disappointed, and he had reasons to feel that way.Not only, according to his own statement, did he not receive a word of thanks from eitherof the editors, Ritschl and Klette, nor does the published index contain any sign at all thathe had compiled and produced it. Compiling the index was mostly hard and uninspiringwork, and he received no payment. On the other hand, Nietzsches work on the index islikely to have been one of the contributing factors for professor Ritschls strong supportof him and for his recommending him for the chair of classical philology in Basel.

Nietzsches work with the index significantly increased his knowledge of contempor-ary philological research, but also seems to have aggravated his alienation from philologywhich he expressed in letters from this time (although never explicitly connected with thework on the index) and eventually in Vom Nutzen und Nachtheil der Historie fr das Leben andin the notes to the never finished Wir Philologen.

The index can be an important and useful tool for determining Nietzsches knowl-edge and reading about antiquity and tragedy. By means of it one can easily determine

23 For a longer discussion of Nietzsches work on the index, see Brobjer, Thomas H.: NietzschesForgotten Book: The Index to the Rheinisches Museum fr Philologie. In: New Nietzsche Studies 4(Summer/Fall 2000), pp. 157161.

24 The table of contents of the published index is as follows:A. Mitarbeiter-Verzeichni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1B. Inhalts-Verzeichni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

I. Zu griechischen und lateinischen Schriftstellern . . . . . 12II. Litterarhistorisches und Bibliographisches . . . . . . . . 56

III. Epigraphisches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56IV. Grammatisches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61V. Metrisches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

VI. Antiquarisches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64VII. Topographisches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

VIII. Mythologisches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69IX. Archologisches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70X. Historisches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

C. Stellen-Verzeichni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75I. Griechische Schriftsteller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

II. Lateinische Schriftsteller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123D. Wrter-Verzeichni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

I. Griechische . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167II. Lateinische . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171


some of the more important texts the young Nietzsche read about the writers of Greektragedy etc. For example, under the heading Greek tragedy the following articles arelisted:

Nake, B., Ueber Symmetrie im Bau der Dialoge griechischer TragdienNauck, A., Zu Wagners Poetarum tragicorum Graecorum fragmentaRibbeck, O., Zeitdauer der TragdieSchmidt, L., Zur Methode der litterargeschichtlichen Forschung

(Parodos und Stasimon)Schraber, H., Zur Wrdigung des deus ex machina in der griechischen TragdieSeyffert, M., Zu den Fragmenten der griechischen Tragiker von A. NauckSommerbrodt, J., Das Staatsexemplar der Tragdien des Aeschylus, Sophokles,

Euripides und die SchauspielerWelcker, F. G., Zur Tragdie

Two further articles which, in part, deal with tragedy are mentioned and page-refer-ences given, but their titles are not listed.

Furthermore, for each of the three Greek authors of tragedy, Aeschylus, Sophoclesand Euripides about ten full articles are listed (and another about twenty, for each ofthem, are mentioned, but titles not listed).

Much other information about Nietzsches reading of scholarly works about antiquitycan be identified with the help of this index.25

IV. Hlderlin.

The German poet Friedrich Hlderlin constitutes one of the fundamental literary in-fluences on Nietzsche. Not only are there striking similarities in many of their attitudesand literary styles, but Nietzsches writings often also explicitly echoes Hlderlins writ-ings and they shared a number of fundamental values (such as love of Greek antiquity,critique of Christianity and critique of the philistine nature of contemporary Germans).Hlderlin was Nietzsches favorite poet at Schulpforta and we know that he read him in-tensively during the first half of the 1860s, i. e. while at Pforta, and also during the firsthalf of the 1870s when he refers to him as the glorious Hlderlin. There is a good ar-gument for the case that Hlderlin played an important role in Nietzsches writing of bothThe Birth of Tragedy and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I will here only briefly discuss his possibleinfluence on the former work.26

One of the main ideas of Die Geburt der Tragdie is that art and aesthetics can be dividedinto two parts, a plastic and a musical one, and that the birth of tragedy occurred whenthese two parts came together in a synthesis. Nietzsche gives them the names Apollinianand Dionysian.

25 For example, Bernays, who played such an important role for Nietzsches concept of The Birth ofTragedy, had published a very large number of articles, all which Nietzsche had read.

26 For a more general discussion, see Brobjer, Thomas H.: Discussion and Source of HlderlinsInfluence on Nietzsche. In: Nietzsche-Studien 30 (2001), pp. 397412, and the references in it.My discussion here is a mildly modified version of part of that article.


Before we plunge into the midst of these struggles, let us array ourselves in the armorof the insights we have acquired. In contrast to all those who are intent on deriving thearts from one exclusive principle, as the necessary vital source of every work of art,I shall keep my eyes fixed on the two artistic deities of the Greeks, Apollo and Diony-sus, and recognize in them the living and conspicuous representatives of two worlds ofart differing in their intrinsic essence and in their highest aims. I see Apollo as thetransfiguring genius of the principium individuationis through which alone the redemp-tion in illusion is truly to be obtained; while by the mystical triumphant cry of Diony-sus the spell of individuation is broken, and the way lies open to the Mothers of Being,to the innermost heart of things. This extraordinary contrast, which stretches like ayawning gulf between plastic art as the Apollinian, and music as the Dionysian art, hasrevealed itself to only one of the great thinkers [i. e. Schopenhauer] [] this most im-portant insight of aesthetics (with which, in the most serious sense, aesthetics prop-erly begins).27

Already Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff criticized the dichotomy and its associ-ation with the Greek gods,28 but many commentators have seen it as one of Nietzschesmost important contributions to cultural philosophy and to our understanding of theGreek world. The construction of the dichotomy has generally been taken as Nietzschesown. Several commentators have discussed the origin of the dichotomy and have sug-gested possible influences on Nietzsche, but no definite source, which it is known thatNietzsche read, has been found.29 All these accounts seem to start with a discussion ofNietzsches and others use of the two Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. As I will show, itis probably more correct to start from the basis of the dichotomy, the plastic and themusical to which Nietzsche only added the names of the gods as labels.

The study and selection of Hlderlins life and writings which Nietzsche read andused while at Pforta, entitled Moderne Klassiker. Deutsche Literaturgeschichte der neueren Zeit inBiographien, Kritiken und Proben: Friedrich Hlderlin (Cassel 1853, 2nd edition 1859), selectedand written by William Neumann, contains and emphasizes precisely this dichotomy:

Er [Hlderlin] leistet wohl das hchste in der Verschmelzung des Plastischen undMusikalischen, ohne aber den Kampf zwischen diesen Gegenstzen vllig auszu-fechten (p. 34)

and

Seine beiden Hauptwerke, Empedokles und Hyperion zeigen aber besonders die StrkeHlderlins im Musikalischen und Plastischen. [] Der griechische Geist in Spracheund Skulptur ist eine ewige Gestalt in der Geschichte. (p. 38)

27 GT 16. Walter Kaufmanns translation.28 Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ulrich von: Erinnerungen 18481914. Leipzig s. d. [1928], pp. 129f.:

Apollinisch und dionysisch sind sthetische Abstraktionen wie naive und sentimentalischeDichtung bei Schiller, und die alten Gtter lieferten nur klangvolle Namen fr einen Gegensatz,in dem etwas Wahres steckt, so viele triviale Dummheiten auch nachschwatzende Halbbildungmit den Wrtern auftischt. Apollon, nicht Dionysos, begeistert den Seher und die Sibylle zu hell-seherischem Wahnsinn, und die Ekstase weckende Fltenmusik, nicht die Kithara des Gottes,herrscht in seinem delphischen Kultus.

29 See Grnder, K. / Mohr, J.: Apollinisch/dionysisch. In: Historisches Wrterbuch der Philoso-phie. Hg. von Joachim Ritter und Karlfried Grnder. Vol. 1. Basel 1971, pp. 441446; von Reib-nitz: Ein Kommentar zu Friedrich Nietzsche, loc. cit., and references in this work.


Throughout the text Neumann emphasizes the close relation between Hlderlins lan-guage and music.

Perhaps the most important content of Nietzsches version of the dichotomy is thatof individuality (Apollinian) and the loss of individuality (Dionysian). This aspect of thedichotomy is also present in Neumanns text:

Im Empedokles brach er das bermige Streben in den grenzenlosen Aether, ins Alldurch sein Bedrfni der Schnheit, durch sein Streben nach Gestaltung, und ge-langte damit aus der Sehnsucht zur Befriedigung, aus dem Unendlichen in die schneAbgeschlossenheit der Individualitt, im Hyperion giebt er der Richtung in das All, dem un-plastischen Pantheismus mehr Spielraum. (p. 99, italics added by me)

and

In Hlderlins Natur durchdringen sich die beiden Momente des Individuellen und desPantheistischen in der Weise, da das Individuelle in ihm der Dichter war, der sich in derBesonderheit seines Naturells strker fhlte, als prosaische Naturen es je vermgen;dagegen war die Macht des Pantheistischen in ihm der Philosoph, so da er sich amtreuesten im Hyperion reflektirt. (pp. 102f.)

Nietzsche also explicitly refers to the Abgeschlossenheit des Individuums [i. e. thecontainment or isolation of the individual] in a manner very similar to Neumanns Ab-geschlossenheit der Individualitt:

Wie die griechische Natur alle furchtbaren Eigenschaften zu benutzen wei:[]das asiatische Orgienwesen (im Dionysischen)die feindselige Abgeschlossenheit des Individuums (Erga) im Apollinischen.30

Nietzsche used the dichotomy Apollinian and Dionysian for the first time in his essayDie dionysische Weltanschauung (summer 1870),31 and thereafter extensively in TheBirth of Tragedy. I thus suggest that Nietzsches reading of Naumanns discussion and se-lection of Hlderlin was an important contributing factor which enabled him to constructthe Apollinian/Dionysian dichotomy.

30 Nachla 1871/72, KSA 7, 16[18]. He also says similar things in Die Geburt der Tragdie, forexample in section 1: In fact, we might say of Apollo that in him the unshaken faith in this prin-cipium and the calm repose of the man wrapped up in it receive their most sublime expression;and we might call Apollo himself the glorious divine image of the principium individuationis(Kaufmanns translation).

31 Nietzsche appears to refer to Dionysisches and Apollinisches for the first time in the notesP I 15a (equivalent to Nachla 1869/70, KSA 7, 3[195]), for example, in notes 12, 25, 27, 33,35, 53, 73 and 86. Many of the notes nearby were written in response to Nietzsches reading ofthe Schopenhauerian philosopher von Hartmann, Eduard: Philosophie des Unbewussten. Ver-such einer Weltanschauung. Berlin 1869.


V. Anselm Feuerbach

No truly convincing direct source for Nietzsches double-concept of the Apollinianand Dionysian, which plays such a fundamental role in The Birth of Tragedy, has been sug-gested, in spite of the fact that both concepts had been used before Nietzsche. The bestdiscussion so far is that of Barbara von Reibnitz Ein Kommentar zu Friedrich Nietzsche.32 Shepoints out that Nietzsche first used the dichotomy in his lectures on the history of tragedyin the summer of 1870, and then more extensively in the essay Die dionysische Welt-anschauung, also written during the summer 1870, and suggests two sources for Nietz-sches concept of the Dionysian, but none for the Apollinian.

bereinstimmend mit K. O. Mller, ohne ihn jedoch zu nennen, definiert Nietzscheden Dionysoskult, aus dem der Dithyrambus hervorgegangene Begriff der diony-sisch-tragischen Ekstasis deckt sich z. Tl. wrtlich mit Yorck v. Wartenburgs Kathar-sis-Schrift, die Nietzsche im Mai 1870 aus BUB entliehen hat. [] In diesem Zusam-menhang erscheint zum ersten Mal die Antithese apollinisch-dionysisch: Die Lyrik,aus der sich die griechische Tragdie entwickelte, war die dionysische, nicht die apol-linische. Dies giebt fr die gesammte griechische Kunst einen Stilunterschied [thetext quoted in the last sentence is from Nietzsches lecture notes, which Reibnitz citesas GOA 17, p. 297].33

A possible stimulus for Nietzsches concept of the Apollinian (rather than the Diony-sian) is the painter Anselm Feuerbach (18291880) who had a special interest in and af-finity to Greek antiquity. He aimed [] at a revival of antique classical ideals, consider-ing them as the absolute standard of beauty; and he became the greatest representativeof classicism in Germany (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1945). Feuerbach expressed hisviews of classicism in the interesting study Der vaticanische Apollo. Eine Reihe archologisch-sthetischer Betrachtungen (Stuttgart and Augsburg 1853, 2nd edition 1855), 373 pages.34Nietzsche borrowed this work from the Basel university library in 1869 and read it care-fully. The book contains extensive discussions of different aspects of Apollo in Greek artand thinking. One of the most prominent features of Nietzsches description of the Apol-linian is the connection between poetry/drama with the plastic arts (normally associatedwith sculpture, and to a lesser extent painting).35 Feuerbach also connects the plastic withpoetry and drama, and like Nietzsche, he emphasizes the power of the unity of plasticpoetry with music. Also like Nietzsche, Feuerbach holds Aeschylus as the most pro-found of the writers of tragedy (p. 274) and almost completely ignores Euripides. Inchapters XIV and XV Feuerbach discusses Apollo and the plastic and their relation todrama and the theatre. Nietzsche clearly read this with much sympathy, and quotes a fullpage of Feuerbachs text (pp. 282f.) in his Das griechische Musikdrama,36 as an exampleof someone who, apart from Wagner (who is not mentioned by name) has argued that theGreek drama is a Gesammtkunstwerk.

32 Von Reibnitz: Ein Kommentar zu Friedrich Nietzsche, loc. cit., pp. 6164, also 30 and 42.33 Ibd., pp. 29f.34 I have examined the second edition, and the page-references below refer to this edition.

Nietzsche apparently knew Anselm Feuerbachs mother, as he states in a letter to Rohde, 7 Dec.1872, KSB 4, No. 277, but nothing further is known about Nietzsches personal relation to theFeuerbach family. Anselms father was a classical scholar.

35 See, for example, GT 1.36 KSA 1, pp. 518f. Nietzsche names Feuerbach, but not the source.


VI. Oswald Marbach

The German author, translator, philologist and philosopher Oswald Marbach(18101890) may have influenced Nietzsches writing of The Birth of Tragedy in importantways. Marbach became professor in philosophy in Leipzig in 1845 and was married toRichard Wagners oldest sister. He was especially interested in drama and aesthetics.Nietzsche read and praised his translations (and commentaries) of Aeschylus andSophocles. Nietzsche and Marbach exchanged several letters and Marbach also sentNietzsche three other texts (Dramaturgische Bltter, in January/February 1870, Shakespeare-Prometheus: Phantastisch-satirisch Zauberspiele vor dem Hllenrachen, in March 1874 andOffener Brief an Herrn Keck in early July 1874).37 It is the first of these texts that willinterest us here. Nietzsche does not appear to have sent him his The Birth of Tragedy, butlater (25 June 1876) he sent him his Richard Wagner in Bayreuth.

There exists a close kinship between Marbachs and Nietzsches views of drama,music, Wagner and antiquity. After the writing of The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche highlypraised Marbach view of antiquity,38 and Marbach highly praised Nietzsches The Birth ofTragedy in the letter from 3 March 1874 (KGB II.4, p. 398). In a later letter, 5 July 1874(KGB II.4, pp. 505f.) Marbach claims to feel isolated in his aesthetic and poetic striv-ings and that he has only found two encounters which have given him true joy, that ofWagner and Nietzsche, both whom he refers to as Bundesgenossen.

This close kinship makes an influence from Marbach to Nietzsche more likely andwe know that Nietzsche received a relevant text by Marbach before he wrote The Birth ofTragedy. In 1868 Nietzsche visited the sechste deutsche Tonknstler-Versammlung, heldin Altenburg 1923 July. They there performed music by many composers, but especiallythe most modern ones, Liszt, Berlioz and Wagner. On the 19th, Oswald Marbach held alecture entitled Die Wiedergeburt der dramatischen Kunst durch die Musik.39 In it hediscussed Wagners view of opera, with reference to the historical origin of drama by theGreeks. We do not know for certain that Nietzsche heard this lecture, but it seems likely.Anyway, at the end of January, or early February 1870 (at the time when Nietzsche wasmuch engaged with these problems) Marbach, on a recommendation from Wagner, sent acopy of his Dramaturgische Bltter : Beitrag zur Wiedererhebung dramatischer Kunst in Deutschland(Leipzig 1870) to Nietzsche.40 Nietzsches response to, and dependence on this text,which no longer is in his library, seems not to have been examined before. The book, ofover 225 pages, contains a number of interesting and relevant essays, but most interesting

37 Marbach had also sent Nietzsche his translation and commentary to Aeschylus Oresteia.38 Ich komme so spt dazu, Ihnen fr die bersendung Ihrer Oresteia und des Prometheus zu

danken, thue dies aber mit umso mehr berzeugung als gerade die Beschftigung mit der Ores-teia ich lese im Colleg die Choephoren einer der Grnde war, der mich vom Briefschreibenabhielt. Ich weiss kaum einen andern Menschen noch und gewiss keinen jetzt lebenden Phi-lologen, der in einem so tiefen und natrlichen Verhltniss zur antiken Tragdie stnde wie Sie undder so sehr gehrt zu werden verdiente, wenn er etwas von seinen inneren Erfahrungen mit-theilt. Ich las mit dem grssten Wohlgefhl Ihre bersetzung und glaube nichts Besseres gelesenzu haben, so dass ich mir sofort Ihre Sophocles-bersetsetzungen kommen liess. Im Commen-tar zur Oresteia fand ich die tiefsten und nachdenklichsten Sachen. Letter to Marbach, 14 June1874, KSB 4, No. 369.

39 See KGB I.4, p. 507.40 See Marbachs letter to Nietzsche, end of January/early February 1870 (KGB II.2, No. 69,

pp. 132f.). See also Cosima Wagners letter, 31 January 1870 (KGB II.2, No. 68, pp. 131f.).


is the text Marbach presented in Altenburg, Die Wiedergeburt der dramatischen Kunstdurch die Musik.41

In the preface to the book Marbach constructs a dichotomy between an ancient-heathen world and art with that of the later Jewish-Christian. In the third essay, DasStaatstheater zu Athen he elaborates on (and praises) many aspects of ancient theatre anddrama. He especially emphasizes like later Nietzsche the importance of music, andtherefore also the choir. He briefly criticizes the modern understanding of the choir andinstead claims that it should be seen as a main character but which does not take partin the action [nicht spielende [] das Fest begehnde Hauptperson] (pp. 44f.). He alsofrequently connects drama (and its early forms) to Dionysos/Bacchos, and he praisesAeschylus and Sophocles as the greatest dramatists, while ignoring Euripides. Marbachalso like Nietzsche emphasizes that in antiquity there was a unity of the lyric, the epic,the dramatic, the recitation, the song and the dancing while in modern time they havefalsely been separated.

In the essay Die Wiedergeburt der dramatischen Kunst durch die Musik Marbachcontinues to elaborated on these themes, but in a more polemical or reformative manner.He argues that dramatic art requires a Wiedergeburt, to be born again. To make thispossible, it is necessary for drama to be re-united with music, for it is the daughter ofmusic, the art of all arts. Marbach emphasizes the importance of music as the beginning ofall culture, and claims that together with music, speech originated (p. 137). He empha-sizes the need for a unity of language and music in a manner which reminds one ofNietzsches concept of the Dionysian and Apollinian Speech [Sprache] is from the be-ginning a follower of music, both of them interprets and compensates each other; musicuses speech for the purpose of making itself comprehensible, speech needs music toachieve an effect [um eindringlich zu werden] (p. 137). Later, Marbach continues thedichotomy by emphasizing the need for unity between sensation/feeling (related tomusic) and thoughts (related to speech) (p. 144).

He strongly emphasizes, throughout the text, that ancient drama was a Gesamtkunst-werk, a unity of music, recitation and dance:

Musik, Poesie und Orchestik in ihrem Zusammenwirken schufen die dramatischeKunst. [] Die Musik wird nicht blos gehrt, sie wird empfunden, indem der natr-liche Mensch selbst wie das musikalische Instrument in Bewegungen, in Schwin-gungen versetzt wird. [] Poesie und Orchestik bestitzen diese Kraft nicht, aberdafr sind sie verstndlicher als die Musik. [] Durch die Verbindung mit Poesie undOrchestik erweitert die Musik ihr Gebiet, ihre Herrschaft ber die Seelen bis ins Un-

41 Marbachs book Dramaturgische Bltter contains the following essays:Die Kunst der Neuzeit 3Innere Grnde des Verfalles der Bhne der Gegenwart 15Das Staatstheater zu Athen 35Aeuere Grnde des Verfalles der Bhne der Gegenwart 65Das Theater als Kunstanstalt und das Interesse des Staates an demselben 102Ueber die Wiedergeburt der dramatischen Kunst durch die Musik 135Ueber die Wiedergeburt dramatischer Kunst, mit Bezugnahme auf Aeschylos Oresteia 156Die Kunst des Uebersetzens 193Meine Bearbeitung Shakespearescher Stcke fr die deutsche Bhne 209Zu Othello 209Zu Romeo und Julia 212Zu Hamlet 223.


endliche. [] Indem aber die Musik diese Hlfe leistet [in modern art and opera],kommt sie in den falschen Schein eine dienende Kunst zu sein, whrend sie dochausschliesslich dominirend ist. Der Verfall der Kunst und speciell der dramatischendatirt von der zuerst aus Armseligkeit hervorgegangenen, dann aber aus Uebermuth,Ueberschtzung und Eifersucht gepflegten Trennung der drei Knste, welche ur-sprnglich in vollkommenster Harmonie gestanden haben; der Musik, der Poesie undder Orchestik. (pp. 138f.)

Hereafter, Marbach again emphasizes the importance of the choir. Like Nietzsche,Marbach emphasizes Wagners importance. He claims that the first steps to a rebirthof the dramatic arts have been taken by the new German school of music, and especiallyby Wagner and Liszt. Aus der Oper wird sich das wirkliche Kunstdrama wieder entwick-eln, und diese Entwicklung hat schon thatschlich begonnen (p. 145). Also likeNietzsche, Marbach rejects both naturalism and idealistic (or romantic) art, and insteademphasizes that the true artist requires measure (p. 150). Both of them also see drama ortragedy as primarily aesthetic, not moral. However, Marbachs texts are much shorter andless sophisticated and do not contain the philosophical profundity that Nietzsches TheBirth of Tragedy contains.42

Many further possible influences of Nietzsches concept of tragedy ought to be exam-ined. For example, Moritz Rapps Geschichte des griechischen Schauspiels (Tbingen 1862),which is still in Nietzsches library and Julius Sommerbrodts Das altgriechische Theater(Stuttgart 1865), 80 pages, also still in Nietzsches library. We further know that Nietzscheused and quoted A. W. Ambros, Geschichte der Musik (Wien 1862ff.) in his Das griechischeMusikdrama (1869/70).

VII. Wagner

Wagners influence on The Birth of Tragedy was enormous. It is obvious from the textitself (and most of the early drafts), with its preface to Wagner, by the arguments thatWagner represents a revival of tragedy and by Nietzsches great general dependence onWagner at this time. However, Nietzsches early encounter with Wagnerian ideas andmusic, before 1868, has received little attention, and I will therefore discuss it here. There-after I will summarize Wagners importance for Nietzsche after 1868, and for The Birth ofTragedy, and briefly allude to three other aspects of his influence on the book, which arenot well known.

Nietzsche became a Wagnerian in early 1868 after a period of ambivalence towardsWagner for a number of years. After he met and learnt to know Richard Wagner in personin November 1868 he became an enthusiastic and dedicated Wagnerian which was toaffect the rest of his life. His Wagnerianism was not only limited to the field of music, butaffected his views and values in a wide range of areas. He read all of Wagners more theo-retical works in 1869 and in the early 1870s, and was profoundly influenced by them. Healso read much about Wagner, including the pro-Wagnerian journal Musikalisches Wochen-blatt, for which he even wrote a contribution (defending Zllner and Wagner). In the early

42 I have only examined the two named essays of Marbachs book. I have not found any certain spe-cific details which could prove that Nietzsche used and was influenced by this work, but severalinteresting general parallels, as discussed above.


1870s, he, together with Wagner, discussed and planned to found a new Wagnerian jour-nal with Nietzsche as the chief editor.43 Nietzsches first books, especially Die Geburt derTragdie, and the first and fourth Unzeitgeme Betrachtungen (about Strauss and Wagner),and to a lesser extent also the second and third ones (about history and Schopenhauer)can to a large extent be regarded as Wagnerian Streitschriften or polemics. This was recog-nized at the time,44 and Nietzsche was regarded as a Wagnerian and spokesman forWagners ideas in almost all reviews of his books until his mental collapse.

The one who first introduced Nietzsche to Wagners music and Wagnerianism was hisfriend Gustav Krug. They had been friends since the age of about ten, but our first evi-dence of Krugs interest in Wagner and attempt to influence Nietzsche (and their mutualfriend Wilhelm Pinder) comes for the period 18601863 when they founded a culturalsociety together, the Germania, for which they wrote monthly contributions (essays,poems, or compositions) and four times a year held lectures to one another.

Almost all of Krugs interest was directed at music and composing, and he frequentlywrote and lectured about different Wagnerian themes. This interest is also reflected in thefew books and musical scores they bought for the society:45

Lohengrin by Wagner (suggested by Krug) 1860Hlderlins Gedichte (Pinder) 1861Dante-symphony by Liszt (Nietzsche) 1861Anregungen fr Kunst, Leben und Wissenschaft, journal-subscription for 1861.46Tristan und Isolde by Wagner (Krug) 1862

Nietzsche was seriously concerned with music, and his ideas on music and hiscomposing changed significantly during the period 186064. Many of his contributionsto the Germania concerned music and composing. In his autobiography from 1858,Nietzsche had expressed a strong preference for classical music together with a highlyhostile attitude towards modern music.

I felt therefore also an unquenchable hatred against all modern music and everythingwhich was not classical. Mozart and Haidn [sic], Schubert and Mendelssohn, Beet-hoven and Bach are the only pillars on which German music and I are founded.47

43 This journal was, in fact, founded in 1878 with the title Bayreuther Bltter, but by this timeNietzsche had left the Wagerian camp and his role as chief editor was taken by Hans von Wol-zogen. Nietzsche paid for a subscription of this journal for many years.

44 The negative views about Die Geburt der Tragdie among classical philologists may well to a largeextent have been due not so much to its discussion of antiquity as such, but to its unscholarly andunscientific Wagnerian stance. Von Wilamowitz-Mllendorff: Erinnerungen, loc. cit., p. 127,claims that Nietzsche hatte meinen moralischen Ingrimm durch einen frechen Ausfall auf OttoJahn besonders erregt. Otto Jahn was an important classical philologist, but also an anti-Wag-nerian music critic. Later Wilamowtiz writes: es handelte sich gar nicht wirklich von die attischeTragdie, sondern um Wagners Musikdrama (ibd.).

45 This list is based on the unpublished financial accounts of the Germania, GSA 71/219. They tookturns in suggesting what to buy.

46 In all previous accounts of the Germania it has been claimed, following Elizabeth Frster-Nietzsche, that the subscription was to the Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik. Gustav Krug read thisWagnerian journal most probably his father subscribed to it but there is no evidence thatGermania subscribed to it. This claim must be due to a confusion with the journal Anregungen frKunst, Leben und Wissenschaft which was also Wagnerian in spirit and edited by the same Brendelwho edited Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik.

47 Aus meinem Leben. Nachla 1858, KGW I.1, 4[77], p. 298.


During 1861 and 62 his views changed profoundly. Several of his first contributionsto the Germania were parts of a planned but never concluded Christmas Oratorium. Dur-ing this time, the first half-year, he seems still to hold on to his old views and argues thatthe oratorium represented the highest form of music, higher than the opera, because itwas simpler, more religiously elevating and more available even to the uneducated.48However, soon the interests and influence of Krug becomes more and more visible. InMarch 1861 Krug held a synodal lecture about Wagner with he title Ueber einige Szenenv. Tristan und Isolde, in July one Ueber die neudeutsche Musikschule, in February 1862ber Wagners Faust ouvertre and in March Ueber Rheingold v. Wagner. In the sec-ond half of 1861, the Germania also subscribed to the cultural journal Anregungen fr Kunst,Leben und Wissenschaft. It seems likely that it was Krug who persuaded the others that theyshould subscribe to this pro-Wagnerian journal (we know that he bought a whole annualvolume at the time the Germania began its subscription).

Nietzsche very rarely refers to Wagner at this time, but his sister says that he and Krugplayed Wagner on the piano and sang to it for days on end with enthusiasm in 1862. Heemphasizes the power of Wagners music in a note, possibly a draft for a suggested mutualtheme for all three members, or perhaps an excerpt from a musical journal.49 Thus, al-ready in 186264 Nietzsche had a good knowledge of, and an enthusiasm for, Wagner. Itseems as if this enthusiasm cools for some years, perhaps partly due to the influence ofOtto Jahn (by whom Nietzsche read at least one book about music at this time and whowas his teacher at Bonn) and Eduard Hanslick (18251904), a theoretician of musicwhom Nietzsche also read at this time, both critics of Wagner.50

In the winter 1865/66, in Leipzig, Nietzsche attended Zukunftmatineen, concerts withmusic by Wagner, Liszt and Berlioz, but we do not know how he responded to what heheard.51 Half a year later he went through part of Wagners Walkre on the piano andthereafter wrote that it contains parts which are highly beautiful and parts which areequally awful so that the sum becomes nil.52

In 1867 he had frequent heated debates with his acquaintance Hffer, who was a Wag-nerian, but in April 1868 he admitted that Hffer had the better and more healthy musicaljudgement.53 In July the same year, for five days, 1923, he attended the Deutsche Ton-knstler-Versammlung, where they played modern music, including Wagner.54 During this

48 Letter from Nietzsche to Pinder and Krug, 14 January 1861, KSB 1, No. 203.49 BAW 2, p. 114. This note is apparently an excerpt from Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik. Nietzsche sug-

gested the theme Ueber des Wesen der Musik as a Preisthema for the Synod in January 1863,and wrote notes on this theme.

50 Nietzsche again read Hanslick during the early 1870s, and was then possibly inspired by him toview Wagner in a more critical light. See the discussion in Eger, Manfred: Zum Fall Wagner /Nietzsche / Hanslick. In: Entdecken und verraten. Edited by Andreas Schirmer and RdigerSchmidt. Weimar 1999, pp. 111131. See also Anna Hartmann Cavalcantis excellent paperNietzsche als Leser: seiner frhen Quellen und die Lektre von Eduard Hanslick which also dis-cusses Nietzsches annotations in his copy of a work by Hanslick. Cavalcantis paper was pres-ented at a conference on Nietzsches reading and library in Weimar 2002, and will be published inthe conference proceedings. An important paper on this theme has also been published by Lan-derer, Christoph / Schuster, Marc-Oliver: Nietzsches Vorstudien zur Geburt der Tragdie in ihrerBeziehung zur Musiksthetik Eduard Hanslicks. In: Nietzsche-Studien 31 (2002), pp. 114133.

51 Letter to Franziska und Elisabeth Nietzsche, 12 Nov. 1865, KSB 1, No. 487.52 Letter to Gersdorff, 11 Oct. 1866, KSB 2, No. 523.53 Nachla 1867/68, KGW I.4, 60[1], p. 518.54 KGB I.4, p. 507.


year he thus seems to have returned to the positive views of Wagner which he had held dur-ing the Germania-time, and began playing Wagner on the piano again. It was through suchplaying that he came to be invited to meet Wagner himself in November 1868. From thenon, for about eight years, until 1875/76, he was a dedicated Wagnerian.55 During this time,Wagner and Schopenhauer were to profoundly influence much of his thinking and writing.

Nietzsches first pro-Wagnerian period, ca 186264, seems to have been influencedby Krug and by two written sources: The journal Anregungen fr Kunst, Leben und Wissen-schaft and Franz Brendels book Geschichte der Musik in Italien, Deutschland und Frankreich.

(i) The journal Anregungen fr Kunst, Leben und Wissenschaft, edited by Franz Brendeland Richard Pohl, published in monthly instalments between 1856 and 1861, was a cul-tural journal with broad intellectual interests, but which focused on music, especiallyWagnerian music, and materialist philosophy. The Germania subscribed to the journal in1861, and we know that Nietzsche read it.

Since the Anregungen fr Kunst, Leben und Wissenschaft seems to contain so many articlesrelevant for the young Nietzsches interest and development, and since this is a sourcenever previously noted or discussed, I will list some of the more interesting articles relat-ing to music and antiquity, and a few other interesting titles.56 As we can see, Nietzsche

55 Nietzsches statements about Wagner is conveniently collected in the two volumes: Borchmeyer,Dieter / Salaquarda, Jrg (ed.): Nietzsche und Wagner. Stationen einer epochalen Begegnung.Frankfurt am Main 1994.

56 Volume 1 (1856):Arthur Schopenhauers Ansicht ber Musik, von Dr. D. Asher.The volume also contains six articles on different Wagnerian themes (Gluck und Wagner, Dergesprochene Dialog in der Oper und das Recitativ, Richard Wagners Operntexte von Stand-punct des Dramas (two articles), Albertis Richard Wagner und seine Stellung in der Ge-schichte der dramatischen Musik, Berlioz Verhltni zu R. Wagner, Das Verhltni derOpern Wagners zu seiner Theorie and Wagners Stoffe.Volume 2 (1857):Das Studium der Antike von Seiten unserer Tonknstler, von F. Brendel.Das Wahl antiker Stoffe fr das Drama, von F. Brendel.Other articles deals with Wagner.Volume 3 (1858):Aesthetik und PhysiologiePhilosoph und Kritiker in ihrem Verhltniss zum schaffenden Knstler.Volume 4 (1859):Aus und ber Schopenhauer. Von Louis Bchner (A series of four articles this year)Other articles deal with Wagner.Volume 5 (1860):Schopenhauers Ansichten ber Musikber die TragikEin Englnder ber Deutschland. Von Louis Bchner.Other articles deal with Wagner (R. Wagners Textbuch zu Tristan und Isolde (3 articles), Poe-sie und Musik in ihrer Verbindung.Volume 6 (1861)Die Musik im franzsischen Roman. Von Alexander Bchner.Other articles deal with Wagner (ber Den fliegenden Hollnder von Richard Wagner,Semele und Lohengrin. Eine Parallele, R. Wagners Ring des Nibelungen (2 articles),Das Drama des Gegenwart, Ueber Wagners Fliegenden Hollnder, Musik, Geist derTonkunst, Der Tannhuser in Paris and Physiologie der menschlichen Tonbildung.


could have gained extensive knowledge about Wagner from this journal, and it containsmany other articles potentially relevant for the content of The Birth of Tragedy.

Another source for Nietzsches early knowledge of Wagner, is another Wagnerianjournal of music, also edited by Brendel, the Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik, which GustavKrugs father subscribed to, which Krug read and referred to, and which Nietzsche alsosometimes read, especially in 1861 and 1868.

(ii) Franz Brendels book Geschichte der Musik in Italien, Deutschland und Frankreich: Vonden ersten christlichen Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart (Leipzig 1852, 2nd edition1855).

One of the most surprising aspects of Nietzsches school essay Primum Oedipodisregis carmen choricum, is that it also contains high praise of Wagner and his conceptionof tragedy, opera and the relation between drama and music. In the essay he writes that:the sublime Greeks avoided the idiocy on which our operas until this day rests with theexception of the brilliant plans of reform and deeds of R. Wagner the horrific misunder-standing of the relation between music and text, between tone and feeling [] we thus intheir [the Greeks] art, have what the most recent musical school has set up as the ideal ofart of the future.57

It seems likely that the most direct source for Nietzsches statements about Wagner inthe essay comes from Brendels book Geschichte der Musik in Italien, Deutschland und Frank-reich. Krug received this book as a Christmas present in 1860, and recommended and lentit to Nietzsche in the following years.58 We know that Nietzsche borrowed and used it. InApril 1862 he wrote down notes for a history of music, closely based on Brendels book(BAW 2, pp. 6466). Nietzsches notes discussing the nature of music from late 1862 andearly 1863 are also possibly inspired by his reading of Brendel.59 In the school essay fromthe spring 1864, Primum Oedipodis regis carmen choricum, Nietzsche strongly praisesWagner, and for a full page discusses Wagnerian themes, but he is not specific enough towith certainty determine any specific source.60 However, the source is very likely the bookby Brendel, which contains many statements similar to Nietzsches. The book was writtenin the form of 25 lectures and tells the story of the history of music from the earliestChristian time until the present, culminating in lectures 23 and 24 about Wagner and hisview of music (the final and 25th lecture is a summary). His discussion there seems to haveinspired Nietzsche:

Das Grsste wurde geleistet nicht in der Oper selbst, sondern in der Musik zu clas-sischen Tragdien. Jetzt trat Wagner mit seinen Opern hervor, und er ist der Erste ge-wesen, der nicht blos die Oper wieder zum Kunstwerk gemacht, sondern zugleichauch die Aufgabe um einen gewaltigen Schritt weiter gefhrt hat. [] Mit Wagner tratdie Oper wieder an die Spitze der Entwickelung. [] Er hat die starre, nur specifischmusikalischen Zwecken dienende Form zerbrochen, die Abgeschossenheit derselbenaufgehoben, er hat die einzelnen Bestandtheile in Fluss gebracht, und so die Mg-lichkeit einer innigeren Einheit von Poesie und Musik gegeben, die Poesie von denegoistischen Ansprchen der Musik befreit [] zum ersten Male geforderten hheren

57 BAW 2, p. 376.58 In a text written for the Germania, 14 April 1862 (reproduced in BAW 2, p. 441), Krug makes a

long quotation from the book (from p. 570 of the second volume, in the 6th edition of the workfrom 1878). In a letter to Nietzsche from 20 February 1863, Krug asks him to return the Brendelbook if he is not using it just at the moment.

59 BAW 2, pp. 89, 114 and 171f.60 BAW 2, p. 376.


Einheit von Poesie und Musik, in der gleichen Berechtigung der verschiedenen zu einem Ganzen ver-bundenen Knste []. Wagner hat einen neuen Ausgangspunct genommen, indem er dieMusik aus ihrer absoluten Herrschaft verdrngte, und derselben die Stellung einerMacht von nur relativer Bedeutung anwies. Die bisherige Oper war, wie wir gesehenhaben, zur Nullitt herabgesunken []. Durch Wagner ist der Weg bezeichnet wordenzu einer Melodiebildung anderer Art, einer Melodiebildung, die aus der innigsten Ein-heit von Wort und Ton entsteht []. Im vierten Abschnitt [von Kunst und Revolution]giebt Wagner eine Vergleichung der wahren, der antiken, mit der modernen Kunst:jene ist Kunst, diese knstlerisches Handwerk. [] Dass Wagner bei diesen An-schauungen zugleich von Griechenland und dem griechischen Drama seinen Aus-gang nimmt, wurde schon vorhin erwhnt. [] Das Ziel ist eine Wiedervereinigung,schon gegeben in Griechenland, und jetzt wieder zu erreichen auf hherer Stufe undmit unendlich reicheren Mitteln. [] Was endlich die neue Einheit von Poesie undMusik im Kunstwerk der Zukunft betrifft, so beruht diesselbe [] auf einer weitinnigeren Verbindung beider Elemente. [] Ich erblicke in dieser Theorie dasGrsste und Bedeutendste, das Folgenschwerste, was in neuerer Zeit auf knstleri-schen Gebiete geleistet worden ist.61

During the period 186971, that is, at the time of writing The Birth of Tragedy, thereexisted very strong direct influences from Wagner on Nietzsche. Much of this was thoughthe conversations they held, but three other aspects are worth mentioning:

1. Wagner had, before Nietzsche, discussed the relation between ancient drama andmodern opera, and foreshadowed much of Nietzsches statements in The Birth of Tragedy.He had a much more detailed and advanced knowledge of Greek drama than has beenrealized. This has been shown in some detail for the first time by the classical scholarW. Schadewaldt in his lectures Richard Wagner und die Griechen. Drei Bayreuther Vor-trge (1962).62 Already in 1849 Wagner had written down the note: Geburt aus derMusik: schylos. Dcadence Euripides. In his work Oper und Drama (1851) Wagneralso discussed the question of the relationship between myth and drama.

2. Important is also Wagners letter to Nietzsche, shortly before 12 Feb. 1871 wherehe asks Nietzsche to remain a philologist and as such help him bring about the greatRenaissance where Plato is unified with Homer and music is the key to understanding.

3. Nietzsche was greatly inspired by the reading of many of Wagners books, es-pecially his Beethoven.

This work has been financially supported by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.

61 Brendel, Franz: Geschichte der Musik in Italien, Deutschland und Frankreich. Von den erstenchristlichen Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart. 6th edition. Leipzig 1878, pp. 556, 558f., 560f., 566f.,568. It is interesting to see that in this edition, from 1878, Nietzsche himself is mentioned as oneof those who have written about Wagner (p. 572). This has not been noted in the otherwisehighly reliable compilation of all discussions of Nietzsche in German literature compiled by Ri-chard Frank Krummel (Krummel, Richard Frank: Nietzsche und der deutsche Geist 1. Ausbrei-tung und Wirkung des Nietzscheschen Werkes im deutschen Sprachraum bis zum Todesjahr.Ein Schrifttumsverzeichnis der Jahre 18671900. 2. verb. und erg. Aufl. Berlin, New York 1998).

62 Originally published in the Programmhefte der Wagner-Auffhrungen Bayreuth 1962 (1963/64). Alsoavailable in Schadewaldt, Wolfgang: Hellas und Hesperien. Vol. 2. Stuttgart 1970, pp. 341405.

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9 - Thomas H. Brobjer - Tragedy