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To the ancient Greeks, Apollo represented the perfection of youthful manhood. He was the god of music, poetry, archery, prophecy, and healing, among other things. English speakers began using the adjective Apollonian for someone who resembled Apollo in physical beauty or talent as long ago as 1663. Due partly to the work of Nietzsche and other German scholars, we now associate Apollo with the forces of calm rationality (as opposed to the Dionysian forces, which are instinctive, frenzied, and uninhibited). Despite these associations, Apollo himself was not always a force of reason-he had a terrible temper and a lust for young girls as well.
Examples of Apollonian in a Sentence
Alberto Calabrese, Vogue, 4 Mar. 2025
Gomez might have never experienced the Apollonian thrill of working a traditional 9-5 but this outfit belongs to someone who has seen the Slack messaging app.
—Daniel Rodgers, Vogue, 28 June 2024
By the ninth century B.C.E., Delos had been established as an Apollonian sanctuary.
—Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 June 2024
Federer’s genius, on the other hand, has always been of a more Apollonian variety.
—Andrew Barker, Variety, 19 June 2024
But no uncertainty hindered Stella’s progress, a career arc that suggested, and still does, an irresistibly Apollonian art history, dismissive of alternate trends.
—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 4 May 2024
But where Winogrand and Friedlander used their cameras to capture the city’s high-speed, off-kilter energy, Estes had Apollonian impulses.
—Washington Post, 31 Aug. 2023
Haag and Kertzer began the program on Haag’s 23rd birthday with a weeklong primer on Apollonian circle packings — the ancient study of how circles can harmoniously squeeze into one larger circle.
—Quanta Magazine, 10 Aug. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Apollonian.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Apollonian. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
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