Sections 1–6 of The Birth of Tragedy investigate the history of Greek art preceding the rise of the tragic plays of the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. These early sections interpret the various art forms, reaching from mythology to lyric poetry, via the two Greek gods Apollo and Dionysos and what these figures represented to the Greek. By situating the various periods of Greek art in terms of their cultural and philosophical significances, Nietzsche positions us to interpret the rise of tragedy as an amalgam of these art forms that carries with it unique outcomes of its own. In this chapter we shall study Nietzsche's presentation of Apollo and Dionysos and gain a foot-hold on the unique manner in which he approaches Greek antiquity, an approach his philological peers questioned and even ridiculed him for, but that grounds The Birth of Tragedy and marks the beginning of Nietzsche's philosophical endeavours.