Defining Tragedy PDF

Defining Tragedy According to the modern dictionary definition, a tragedy is a drama of serious and dignified character that typically describes the development of a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force, leading to a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion. In everyday speech, the term...

Defining Tragedy According to the modern dictionary definition, a tragedy is a drama of serious and dignified character that typically describes the development of a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force, leading to a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion. In everyday speech, the term tragedy is often used more loosely to refer to a sad, upsetting, or disastrous occurrence, such as a premature death. In the fifth century B.C. in Athens, where the first tragedies were written and performed, the term tragedy or tragoidea in Greek referred to the form of the play and the circumstances of its performance, rather than the subject matter. The term "tragedy" in ancient Greece referred to a specific type of performance, similar to how the term "play" is used today, without necessarily indicating the subject matter of the performance. Tragedies were performed at annual festivals in Athens, particularly the city Dionysia, which was held in honor of the god Dionysus in late March and included theatrical competitions. Playwrights would submit their tragedies to the eponymous archon, the main civic magistrate of Athens, who would select three tragedians to compete against each other for prizes at the festival. Each competing tragedian would submit three tragedies, often referred to as a trilogy, to be performed at the festival, rather than individual standalone plays. In addition to the three tragedies, each playwright would also submit a fourth short play called a satyr play, which was a burlesque featuring mythological followers of Dionysus and was often thematically connected to the preceding tragedies. Unfortunately, only one complete satyr play has survived from antiquity, leaving a significant gap in knowledge about this genre. Etymology of "Tragedy" The name "tragedy" comes from the Greek term "tragoidia," which literally means "goat song," with "trag" meaning goat and "oidea" meaning song. The origin of the name "tragoidia" is a matter of scholarly debate, but most modern scholars believe it refers to a "song for a goat" rather than the satyrs that make up the chorus of the satyr play. The satyrs in 5th-century Athenian art are depicted as human men with tails and animal ears, rather than goat-like features, which challenges the theory that the name "tragoidia" refers to satyrs. The term "tragoidea" is believed to be the origin of the word "tragedy," but its meaning is unclear, with one theory suggesting it refers to a goat prize for the winning tragedian in early competitions, and another theory proposing it describes the sound of adolescent boys' voices in the tragic chorus. The term "tragoidea" has nothing to do with the modern concept of tragedy as sad or disastrous, and in fact, the subject matter of ancient tragedies did not have to be tragic in this sense, as stated by Aristotle, who emphasized that the plot of a tragedy needed to be serious, but not necessarily sad. The Golden Age of Greek Tragedy Tragedy as a dramatic form originated in the sixth century BC but flourished in the fifth century BC in Athens, alongside other cultural developments such as democracy, literary forms, scientific and philosophical thinking, and architecture. The origins of tragedy likely lie in choral performances of poetry, with a man named Thespis credited with inventing drama by adding an actor to the chorus in the 530s BC, and by the end of the sixth century, tragedies were regularly performed at the city Dionysia. The fifth century BC was a time of extraordinary cultural and creative activity in Athens, marked by the development of literary forms, scientific and philosophical thinking, and iconic architectural projects such as the Parthenon, built between 447 and 432 BC under the leadership of Pericles. Aristotle, a great polymath, wrote about tragedy in the 330s BC. The fifth century BC, an artificial construct due to the way of dating, counting backwards from the year 1 BC, is a significant period in history that frames the development of Greek tragedy. This century began with the Persian wars, which Athens played a crucial role in winning, and ended with the Peloponnesian War, which Athens lost, providing a convenient timeline for understanding the rise and fall of Athens' power. The Persian wars, fought in two episodes (490 BC and 480-479 BC), were a remarkable achievement for the Greeks, who defeated the vast and well-organized Persian empire, with Athens being instrumental in both victories. The Greek victory over the Persians contributed to their self-image and view of themselves at the beginning of the 5th century, and Athens' position of leadership in Greece during this period was solidified. As a strong naval power, Athens headed the Delian League, a league of maritime states that eventually became a de facto Athenian empire, causing resentment among other city-states and contributing to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) pitted Athens and her allies against Sparta and her allies, ending with the defeat of Athens, marking a time of both innovation and turmoil in the 5th century. This combination of cultural innovation and political and military turmoil provided the perfect atmosphere for the development of Greek tragedy, with the first extant tragedy dating to 472 BC and the last to 406 BC, neatly spanning this time period. The execution of Socrates in 399 BC, marking the beginning of the 4th century, serves as a convenient endpoint to Athens' great cultural century of development and innovation. It is worth noting that the concept of the 5th century BC would not have been perceived as a distinct unit of time by the Athenians, who dated events differently. The Great Tragedians The three great tragedians of the 5th century BC, considered outstanding in their own day and by modern standards, are Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, who wrote the majority of the surviving tragedies from that era. Aeschylus was born around 525 BC and died in 456 BC, with 82 known play titles and only seven surviving plays, one of which, Prometheus Bound, may not be his work due to controversy over its authorship. Sophocles was born in 496 BC and died in 406 BC at the age of 90, with 123 known play titles and only seven surviving plays, providing a very small sample of his work. Euripides was born in 480 BC and died in 406 BC, with around 92 known play titles and 17 or 18 surviving plays, including the satyr play Cyclops, although one tragedy, Rhesus, is likely not his work. Other tragedians from the late 6th and 5th centuries BC are known, but only fragments of their works have survived, either as literal fragments or quotations in other authors' works. In total, over 1,000 tragedies were written in the 5th century BC, but only 32 have survived, which is about 3% of the total, consisting of the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The small sample size of surviving tragedies should serve as a warning against making sweeping statements about the development of tragedy in the 5th century BC or the stylistic differences between early and late tragedy. The limited availability of works by Sophocles and Aeschylus, with only seven plays out of 123 and 82 known titles, respectively, casts doubt on theories about the development of their styles or what they typically did in their works. The situation is analogous to having only a few plays by Shakespeare, such as The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo and Juliet, and parts of King Lear and Henry the Fifth, which would not allow for a comprehensive understanding of his work. Scholars often discuss the style of early and late works of ancient Greek tragedians like Aeschylus and Sophocles, but this approach is not possible with Shakespeare due to the limited availability of his early works. Subject Matter of Greek Tragedy Despite this limitation, it is known that the subject matter of tragedy was usually drawn from traditional Greek mythology, with very few exceptions where recent history was used as the basis for a tragedy. Examples of tragedies based on recent history include Aeschylus's Persians, which deals with the Athenian victory at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, and Phrenicus's Sack of Miletus, which was fined 1000 drachmas for reminding the Athenians of their own grief. The fine of 1000 drachmas is significant, equivalent to the daily wage of a skilled laborer working on the Erechtheion, which was one drachma per day. Agathon, another tragedian, pioneered the use of invented plots, but this approach never gained popularity, and most tragedies continued to draw their plots from traditional myth. Using traditional myth as the basis for tragedy meant that the audience already knew the broad outlines of the story, but the playwright had scope to modify details and invent minor characters. Playwrights like Sophocles could also refocus the traditional myth to highlight certain aspects or themes, and put their own words into the characters' mouths. It is essential to remember that the tragedians and their audience did not perceive a dichotomy between myth and history, as they believed the events of Greek mythology to be real events that had occurred in the remote past. The use of stories from the remote past in Greek tragedy allowed writers to avoid insulting or annoying their audience, as they would have if they wrote about recent events. Greek tragedy often focused on conflict within a family, particularly one of the great families of Greek mythology, and the destruction of the family due to this conflict. These family conflicts commented on wider social themes, such as justice, the tension between public and private duty, the dangers of political power, and the relationship between the sexes.