The Figure of Dionysus in Schelling's Philosophy

Schelling was the first modern philosopher who undertook a systematic study of the mythological figure of Dionysus. Starting from the concept of "monotheism", he deduced that the only true God is the triune God encompassing all three potentials, thus conceptually argued for the necessity of polytheism or mythology. Dionysus, as the only god in the mythology that runs through all three potentials, plays the most important function, especially in the second potential or as the "second god", i. e., to convert the absolutely closed unity into diversity and its order. From this point of view, Schelling's Dionysus as a god who defends individual life and represents reason, is exactly the opposite of Nietzsche's Dionysus.