дионисический

[paul-s.livejournal.com]

What does the word дионисический mean?

Edit:  Am I right in thinking that стихия can mean chaos?  My dictionary doesn't have it in but I remember seeing it somewhere.  My sentence is this: 'two opposing sources formed the Russian soul: природная, языческая, дионисическая стихия'.  Given the adjectives, chaos seems better than elements.

Comments

[pankratiev.livejournal.com]

May be the following common philosophic construction will clear the situation and help you to look into the matter. There is famous opposition "аполлоническое vs дионисийское" where "а" is affiliated to Reason, Intellect and "д" to smth of Ecstasy, orgiastic and mysterious (derivated from greek mysteria) principle="начало". Sure, Berdyaev meant this opposing.