Abstract

Beginning with an analysis of one of Didi-Huberman’s most significant books (L’Image survivante), the essay focuses on the intertwining of Aby Warburg’s and Friedrich Nietzsche’s thought. In particular, it concentrates on the two concepts of Nachleben and Pathosformel. Can we speak of a «survival» of the ancient tragic in Nietzsche’s work? The perennial tension, that the philosopher establishes between Apolline and Dionysiac, can be interpreted in terms of a «pathos formula»? That of the snake acts as a hinge-image between the philosopher’s reflection on the eternal return (it is well known that Nietzsche has elected the serpent to be the symbol of his «abysmal thought») on the one hand and, on the other hand, Warburg’s imaginary bestiary, in which the snake and the Indo-American ritual connected to it are meant to explain his aesthetic theory.