In my thesis I will examine James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) in the light of Friedrich Nietzche’s The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music (1871). I will focus on how two key concepts of The Birth of Tragedy – Dionysian and Apollonian – appear in the text of Ulysses and how they are related to its two main characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom. Finally, I will discuss the relationship of the Dionysian and Apollonian drives as represented by the two characters in the fifteenth episode, “Circe”. In Nietzsche’s work the two gods, Dionysus and Apollo represent two different ways of thinking, which complement each other. Dionysus, the god of wine, is generally associated with ecstasy, madness, freedom and excess, while Apollo’s main features are beauty and moderation. As the two drives, Dionysian and Apollonian, merge, Attic tragedy is born, which – according to Nietzsche – should be the basis of all European art. However, European art is not defined by Attic tragedy, but by its successor, New Attic comedy, which emphasizes the moral values of a work of art. This is unacceptable for Nietzsche; therefore he urges a renewal of European art, based on Attic tragedy.