Of Pirates and Bullfights: Lawrence’s Fascination with Two Faces of Dionysian “Madness”

Abstract

G.S. Kirk reminds us how Nietzsche saw the ancient Greek gods, Apollo and Dionysus, as “symbols of opposing aspects – classical and romantic, controlled and ecstatic – of the Greeks’ spirit”. This opposition between Apollo, also seen as the god of the Sun, of light and reason, and Dionysus, who is associated with the dark, wine, excess, drunkenness and unreason – or madness – is commonplace. Yet looking at Lawrence’s fascination with Dionysus suggests that he saw the division not between thes...