Apollonianism is individuality, flow, and the yearning for dream like states to be true. In the tragedy Oedipus the King Apollonian ideals are manifested through the perceived reality of Oedipus, the plays structure, and the chorus. Interestingly it is the collision of the perceived reality of Oedipus and the actual reality of Oedipus that creates the tragedy.

The structure of the play is that of revealing the perceived reality of Oedipus first and then revealing the actual reality. By placing the perceived reality first Sophocles creates a want for that perceived reality, or dream world, to be true. As a result he has created an Apollonian atmosphere in the play and has made it so that the dream world of Oedipus is what the entire play is based upon, the want for the dream world of Oedipus to be real. Interestingly, it is possible that...