Apollo, as an ethical deity, demands moderation from his followers and, in order to maintain it, self-knowledge. And thus the admonitions ‘Know thyself’ and ‘Nothing to excess!’ coexist with the aesthetic necessity of beauty, while hubris and excess are considered the truly hostile spirits of the non-Apolline realm, and hence qualities of the pre-Apolline age, the age of the Titans, and the world beyond the Apolline, the world of the barbarians …

The Apolline Greeks also saw the effect of the Dionysiac as ‘Titanic’ and ‘barbaric’, unable to conceal from themselves the fact that they were also inwardly akin to those fallen Titans and heroes … And behold! Apollo could not live without Dionysus! … The individual, with all his restraints and moderations, was submerged in the self-oblivion of the Dionysiac state and forgot the Apolline dictates. Excess was revealed as truth, contradiction; the bliss born of pain spoke from the heart of nature. And consequently, whenever the Dionysiac invasion was successful, the Apollonian was negated and destroyed.