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Abstract
In The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche speaks of all art as a result of the interchange between the Dionysian and the Apollonian, the timeless illusion of music and the measured illusion of order. In Linstant ternel, Michel Maffesoli sets up horizontal and vertical time as Dionysian and Promethean. The difference between the Apollonian and Promethean is in the fact that, whereas Apollo escapes mortality in a cyclical illusion, Prometheus pays for his labors. The Dionysian and Apollonian merge in a standstill that is arguably Promethean, whereas Dionysian and Promethean merge to form a dialogue between the illusion of timelessness and the reality of linear time. As a result of this dialogue, the Dionysian becomes an intense escape from the treacherous and often monotonous reality of daily life, and daily life becomes a rest from such intensity.