ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK TRAGEDY

ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK TRAGEDY
A tragedy is a written piece of literature that is preformed as a play. Actors carry out the story line and it involves a hero or protagonist who suffers through a traumatic experience, usually resulting in his death. The definition of a tragedy in Kenneth McLeish’s book Aristotle states that “Tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in a language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament , the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play. In form it is action, not narrative. Through pity and terror it effects the purgnation of these emotions.”

Greek tragedy has it’s origins in the religious ceremonies to Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility. Tragedy started off as a choral poem called the Dithyramb, in the city of Athens. The first Greek tragedies consisted of just a chorus and the chorus leader. Through time, this develops into the fully develop...