1. Background to Greek Tragedy AP English Language and Composition Mr. Eugene

2. What is Tragedy? Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. -- Aristotle, from Book VI of the Poetics Analysis of definition: 1.Based on imitation of action that is serious, complete, and elevated 2.Uses embellished language 3.Presented in dramatic form 4.Effects purgation (catharsis), through experience of pity and fear in audience

3. Drama: A mimetic art form ► Imitation of action is not a superficial pursuit, but one grounded in the primitive human need to exercise the ordering capacity of the mind on the external world. ► Mimesis often involved dance and the wearing of costumes ► Mimesis aims at inspiration and autosuggestion ► Consider these examples of artistic mimesis:  Cave painting  Hopi rain dance  Medieval joust  What others can you think of?

4. History of Greek Tragedy: The roots of dramatic performance ► Greek drama was originally in dance form and for religious purposes ► Religious dances were called dithyrambs, or “ goat songs ”  leaping dances of abandonment ending in sacrifice of animal, usually a goat ► Drama transitioned from religious practice to art form in the 5th century BCE

5. The Greek Theater: Architecture and Staging A. Theatron F. Parados E. Proskenion D. Skene B. OrchestraC. Thymele

6. History of Greek Tragedy: The Introduction of Dialogue ► Thespis (a director of a famous chorus)  Known as the first actor  Stood on the sacrificial table and addressed the leader of the chorus ► Aeschylus (the Father of Tragedy)  Introduced second actor  Diminished the importance of the chorus  Made dialogue the body of the drama  Made actors as impressive as possible by developing cothurni and painted masks

7. Sophocles: The happy playwright ► Introduced second actor, scene (skene) painting, and the play within a trilogy as an independent entity ► Raised number of chorus from 12 to 15 ► First tragedian to use phrygian music ► Modified purpose of chorus:  Represented the common people  Set the mood for each episode  Follow the dramatic action closely  React to the dramatic action emotionally  Separate episodes, creating rhythmic flow of action and reflection

8. Euripedes ► About a dozen years younger than Sophocles ► From a wealthy family; able to devote himself to drama ► Produced blends of dramatic forms, especially tragic-comedy ► Continued innovations in music as lyrics become less important resulting in:  Loose syntax  Polysyllabic vagueness ► Nondramatic prologue orients viewer to the point in the myth at which action is to begin ► Extensive use of deus ex machina endings

9. Elements of Greek Tragedy: Plot is the “ Soul of Tragedy ” ► Action moves through emotion (pathos) to perception, resulting in purgation (catharsis) ► Purpose of plot is to stage a complete working out of a single motivation ► Plot must observe three unities: 1.Action – no subplots or diversions 2.Time – action occurs in the space of a single day 3.Place – no scene changes (messenger brings news of other events) ► Plot was seldom invented; usually based on known myths ► Subject is downfall of elevated figure resulting in his destruction or death

10. Elements of Greek Tragedy: Plot and the emergence of perception ► Action of the play reveals how man is brought to destruction by a single hamartia, or flaw in his character ► Perception emerges in the moment of peripeteia, or reversal of action ► Reversal occurs simultaneously with the moment of anagnorisis, or recognition of the truth, producing a change from ignorance to insight

11. Elements of Greek Tragedy: Action, Perception, and its Outcome ► Internal: Tragic protagonist comes to understand and acknowledge 1.his/her place in the universal scheme of things 2.the errors that have led to tragedy 3.the degree to which s/he is responsible for his/her destruction ► External: Emotional tension increases to a breaking point, arousing pity and fear, awe and wonder until, at moment of reversal, audience experiences purgation

12. Audience, religious rite, and the primitive psyche ► Audience vicariously experiences tragic emotions in extreme form ► Conclusion of tragedy purges these emotions from the psyche ► Dramatic form, in this sense, merges religious and psychological rite ► Dramatic art form is thus both inspired by and intended to inspire the primitive psyche (see handout on Jung) of the collective audience