Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Home > Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of drama which can be traced back as far as the theatre of ancient Greece. The Greek tragedies were originally written and produced for theatrical competitions, and the winning team in the tragic competition would receive a goat to feast on. The word "tragedy" is thus derived from the Greek word tragodiai, meaning "goat-songs". Greek tragedy rose out of religious rites and dramatic reenactments of tales of the gods in the early Greek religion and mythology. The philosopher Aristotle theorized that tragedy results in catharsis (emotional cleansing) for the audience and that this explains why humans enjoy seeing dramatized pain. Not all plays that are broadly categorized as "tragedies" result in this type of cathartic ending, though - some have neutral or even ambiguously happy endings. In modern Greek, the word simply means "song." However, among English speakers, the term "tragedy" is usually assigned to a tale which ends on a note of sadness or despair.
1 Greek tragedy
Greek literature boasts three great writers of tragedy whose works are extant: Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus. The largest festival for Greek tragedy was the Dionysia, for which competition prominent playwrights usually submitted three tragedies and one satyr playSatyr plays were an ancient Greek form of comedy, similar to the modern-day burlesque style. Though they did not always include satyrs or even a reference to the mythological creatures, they contained themes of, among other things, drinking, overt sexuali each. The Roman theatreA Roman theatre is a theatre building built by the Romans. The style of building evolved from the one of the Greek theatres, semicircular in form, although Romans tended not to be as concerned about the location, as the Greeks, being prepared to build wal does not appear to have had the same tradition of tragedy writing, but SenecaLucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BC AD 65) was a Roman philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work, humorist, of the " Silver Age" of Latin literature. Seneca the Younger Seneca was born in Cordoba, Sp was one of those who adapted Greek stories, such as Phaedra174 Phaedra is an asteroid. Phaedra is also the title of a 1974 album by the avant-garde rock group Tangerine Dream. In Greek mythology, Phaedra was the mother of Demophon and Acamas by Theseus. Phaedra fell in love with Hippolytus, Theseus' son by his ex, into LatinAlternative meanings: See Latin (disambiguation Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and ma for the Roman stage.
A favorite theatrical device of many ancient Greek tragedians was the ekkyklêma, a cart hidden behind the scenery which could be rolled out to display the aftermath of some event which had happened out of sight of the audience. This event was frequently a brutal murder of some sort, an act of violence which could not be effectively portrayed visually, but an action of which the other characters must see the effects in order for it to have meaning and emotional resonance. A prime example of the use of the ekkyklêma is after the murder of AgamemnonAgamemnon ( Greek: ) ("very resolute"), one of the most distinguished of the Greek heroes, was the son of King Atreus of Mycenae (or Argos) and Queen Aerope, and brother of Menelaus. Another account makes him the son of Pleisthenes (the son or father of A in the first play of Aeschylus' OresteiaIntroduction The Oresteia is a trilogy of tragedies about the end of the curse on the House of Atreus, written by Aeschylus. It is the only surviving trilogy of ancient Greek plays, although the fourth satyr play that would have been performed with it has, when the king's butchered body is wheeled out in a grand display for all to see. Variations on the ekkyklêma are used in tragedies and other forms to this day, as writers still find it a useful and often powerful device for showing the consequences of extreme human actions. Another such device was a crane which served to hoist a god or goddess on stage when they were supposed to arrive flying. This device gave origin to the phrase "deus ex machina" ("god out of a machine"), i.e. the surprise intervention of an unforeseen external factor that changes the outcome of an event.
Read more »