The Birth of Tragedy

Nietzsche's first book, a study of ancient Greek tragedy and its origins. He describes two artistic forces, the Apollonian, associated with order and clear form, and the Dionysian, associated with ecstasy and the dissolving of boundaries. Greek tragedy, he argues, joined them.

He then suggests that rational optimism, represented by Socrates, weakened this art, and he hopes for a renewal through music, especially that of Wagner. The book was controversial among scholars but shaped later thinking about art and culture.