Tragedy Spirit And Greek Mythology

Greek mythology is the source of Western culture, people still talked about its tragedy spirit after thousand of years. After numerous re-interpretation, the tragedy spirit of Greek mythology has been greatly expanded. When facing the life tragedy, the human nature tragedy and existence tragedy, Nietzsche, Freud and Camus are invariably returned to the ancient Greek mythology, trying to find a solution to the problem. And they all choose an irrational perspective. Such efforts not only solve the troubles of their own on a certain extent, but also give people some enlightenment in the literary arts, psychiatry and social change.Nietzsche has been born of a demonic irrational temperament, so he hit it off with Dionysus. Dionysus taught Nietzsche how to deal with the tragedy of life, and how to reconcile the spirit of Apollo to achieve the full burst of Dionysian spirit. So he can break with Socrates, who is represented by the rational culture, and then goes to an "aesthetic life". Nietzsche explored whether "aesthetic Socratesthe" is existed, and saw some certain possibility on Plato.Freud found from the tragic story of Oedipus King that the Oedipus complex is the classic expression of the human unconscious. To kill his father and to marry his mother are conforming to humanity. Freud first pointed out the importance of the unconscious in the history of human thought and psychology. Then Carl Jung proposed the theory of the collective unconscious on the base. Freud’s theory of the Unconscious has gone through various changes in the future hundred years, including history, literature, psychology, psychoanalysis, linguistics, cultural anthropology and so on.Camus found the tragedy of existence and an absurd world from Sisyphus, and indicated a rebellious attitude unequivocally. Camus thought people should create meaning for themselves in a hopeless world and to live with absurd. He told people that Sisyphus turned down the pace of happiness and firm. But he also pointed out that rebellion needs moderation. As a background of Sisyphus, Prometheus and Nemesis, Camus gradually analyzed people’s proper response when facing the existence tragedy.