Tragedy

The word ‘tragedy’ itself seems to have its origins in the Greek ‘tragoidoi’ – a chorus of men who either impersonated goats or danced for the prize of a goat – or even round a goat which had been sacrificed.   The modern sense of the word tragedy derives from the baleful nature of the themes and legends developed in tragedies.

There was a clear link between tragic performances and public worship in that, until Hellenistic times, plays were performed only at festivals of Dionysus, especially the Great Dionysia, a springtime celebration of the renewing power of the god.   The setting of the altar of the god in the middle of the orchestra was more than merely

symbolic.   At the Great Dionysia, in the play competition which was organised by the magistrates, three playwrights were chosen, each to produce a group of four plays, only occasionally with a common theme, known as a tetralogy.   A rich citizen, the choregus, bore the financial cost of the production.  The successful playwright and choregus, chosen initially by acclamation, later by judges, received a crown.   The best actor was also awarded a prize.   The Athenians guarded their privileges in this as in much else very carefully indeed.   Only citizens were allowed to be members of this chorus, although metics (foreigners resident in Athens) were permitted to participate in the Lenaea, the winter festival at which comedies were produced.

There were three actors by the time of Sophocles – the protagonist, the deuteragonist and the tritagonist.   The actors were paid by the state and allotted to the three playwrights.   We know that, in addition to their masks, actors also wore a head-dress, a cloak and elevated boots.  All parts were played by men.   In the course of the Fifth Century BC the dress of the actors, like the plays themselves, became more realistic until it reached the point where Aristophanes felt it necessary to criticise Euripides for dressing his actors in rags.   The same period also witnessed a decline in the status of the chorus.   In early drama the songs of the chorus were the main element of the play.   Even in Aeschylus’ plays choral odes are of far greater length than those in the works of Euripides who reduced the role of the chorus to that of spectators to the main action.

The main elements in a Greek tragedy were:

• the prologue – the setting of the theme of the play
• the parados – the ode which the chorus sing as they enter
• the episodes – scenes in which the actors take part, sometimes with the chorus
• the stasima – odes by the chorus
• the exodus – the final scene.

Two key words to know about Greek tragedy are:

1. a) ‘peripeteia’ – the point in the play where the action changes direction
2. b) ‘anagnorisis’ – the recognition of a person or fact.