Fluctuación del ser, amoralidad del devenir. Sabiduría dionisíaca en Judith de Friedrich Hebbel

Abstract

Judith's denomination as a tragedy may seem ambiguous: the supposed heroine appears triumphant, and the supposed villain impersonates a hero during part of the play. Nietzsche's notion of the Dionysian, and George Steiner's thoughts on tragedy allow us to see the clash of two perspectives in Judith: a moral worldview, of Hebrew origin, and another, pagan and tragic, based on an aesthetic justification of existence. The play's tragic element lies in the seduction of Judith by Holofernes, as it implies the triumph of a Dionysian worldview over a Hebrew one: thus an atrocious knowledge –that man's greatest crime is to be born– prevails over the demand for divine justice.