THE DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE between the first edition of The Birth of Tragedy (Die Geburt der Tragödie), published in 1872, and the new edition — technically the third — of 1886 does not involve the content of the work itself, but is limited to the manner in which the new edition is framed. The early title had been The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music (Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik), now changed to The Birth of Tragedy: Or, Hellenism and Pessimism (Die Geburt der Tragödie: Oder Griechenthum und Pessimismus). Appended to the title of this 1886 edition were the words: “New Edition with an Attempt at a Self-Critique” (Neue Ausgabe mit dem Versuch einer Selbstkritik), while, conspicuously, the original “Preface to Richard Wagner” (Vorwort an Richard Wagner) was deleted. Thus Nietzsche's own critique of the early work functionally replaces the preface to his erstwhile mentor, and the change in title with its non-mention of music and instatement of Hellenism likewise performs the removal of Wagner and his world from the book that owed much to him. If the 1886 edition did not present a new Birth of Tragedy, its framing certainly presented a new Nietzsche.

In producing the brilliant hybrid The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche was able to find inspiration in the rich Romantic tradition fueled by Winckelmann and Herder, along with, in matters of tragedy, Goethe, Schiller, and the Schlegel brothers.