At the beginning of this book I described The Birth of Tragedy as somewhat of an enigma, as an entanglement of philosophical themes and tensions that resist a straightforward interpretation and categorization. In this regard I proposed that The Birth of Tragedy was something of a philosophical chameleon, an odd animal whose elusiveness means that its true colour still remains to be seen, but whose intent may well be to maintain its camouflage. We have seen that Nietzsche's lively prose and audacious theses are often imbued with paradoxes and contradictions: for instance Schopenhauer is regarded as a “hero” and referenced throughout the text, yet the affirmation of existence fundamental to the Greek experience of tragedy is entirely at odds with Schopenhauer's philosophy; Nietzsche entangles modernity with antiquity to the point that only a careful reading can relieve the text from a crippling charge of circularity; and, to take a final example, it is a book that ultimately favours an aesthetic engagement with philosophy and life, and casts aside the theoretical paradigm of Socrates and Plato – yet only by the text itself walking a razor-thin line between philosophy and art.