Aristotle’s Elements of Tragedy
1. Tragedy is meant to reaffirm the fact that life is worth living, regardless of the suffering or pain that is part of
human existence.
2. Tragedies are about people in conflict with the universe.
a. Tragedies are always about spiritual conflicts, not every day events.
3. Tragic actions arise from a character's inner conflict.
a. A tragic protagonist must have magnitude; his struggles are great because he is important to society.
4. The tragic protagonist must fall from high to low; they will have a noble soul.
a. The audience must care about the tragic protagonist.
5. The tragic protagonist is a good man, but not perfect.
a. Member of the nobility.
b. Usually suffers from hubris (Pride) as shown through hamartia (character flaw or error in judgment).
c. Once the transgression is realized, the character enters the stage of anagnorisis (recognition) and will
undergo a peripeteia (reversal of fortune or fall from high to low).
6. The protagonist's actions should arouse feelings of both pity and fear in the audience.
a. Pity because the protagonist is better than we are, so we place ourselves into his position (empathy)
b. Fear because we too do not know our future or fate.
7. By the end of the play, the audience should be purged of pity and fear, so they go through a catharsis.
a. Catharsis = purgation of pity and fear
8. The tragic protagonist must ask the first and last of all questions: What does it mean to be?
a. He must face the world alone, unaccommodated, and kick against his fate.
b. He can never escape his fate, but he will insist upon accepting fate on his own terms.
Aristotle's Six Elements of Drama
1. Plot (the incidents or story line)
2. Character (physical, social, psychological, moral--people represented in the play)
3. Thought/Theme (insights into humanity and life
4. Music (all sound)
5. Spectacle (scenery and other visual elements)
6. Diction/language (the dialogue and poetry)
The Greek Theatre
Skene: A building behind everything in which the actors changed costumes
Orchestra: a circular area with an altar in the center where the performances took place
Proskenion: a raised platform that supported a small stage.
Audience: Usually the theatre spaces were built into hillsides and the seating was arranged in a large
semi-circle
Periaktos: Triangle prisms which could be pivoted to reveal three different backgrounds
Eccyclema: a platform on wheels used to display the effects of violence within a play
Deus ex Machina: (god from the machine) a crane-like machine that was used to lower an actor, playing
the part of god, onto the stage in order to fix the problems at hand
Parados: The area of the theatre where the chorus enters and exits.
The Functions of the Greek Chorus
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To provide exposition, or explain the scene;
To comment on the action;
To serve as spectacle (visual entertainment);
To describe offstage action; and
To interact with characters.
The Actors
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The actors were always men, even if they were playing female roles.
In order to have a female appearance, they performed wearing the
"prosternida" (before the chest, imitating a woman's breasts) and the
"progastrida" before the belly.
In order to look taller and more impressive they were wearing
"cothornous" (wooden shoes with tall heels). These shoes were the
same for both legs (no right and left).
They were dressed in long robes with vertical stripes.
The most essential part of their disguise was the mask. These masks
were made ad hoc and they had big holes for the mouth and the
eyes. The mask was necessary to transmit the characters feelings to the audience who could in some
cases be very, very far away. They would also act as a sort of megaphone to enhance the voice.
The Role of Women in Ancient Greek Culture
Religious Role
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Some festivals were restricted to citizen women; in others women had an important role.
Women were included in the Panathenaea: in the procession, groups of maidens head the procession but those of noble
families came before those of lower status.
Likely that there were other ritual occasions where women could participate e.g. public sacrifices - were spectators.
Women had an important role in funerals.
Legal position
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Women couldn't inherit property.
Women could give evidence under oath under a special procedure.
Women didn't appear in court as jurors or as litigants (i.e. party to a lawsuit).
Women didn't have the opportunity to commit most crimes as were not in the public sphere.
Family law was handled by a woman's guardian e.g. father, husband.
Political Position
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Women could not achieve political rights, although metics (resident foreigners) and even slaves could.
Citizen wives shared citizen status in as much as they could have sons who were citizens and daughters who could marry
citizens.
Economic Position
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The social ideal was that a woman did not keep a shop or do market business.
Sources show that in wealthier household’s men or slaves do shopping.
Ideally women were absent from the agora - the central public space and core of political/judicial/economic/cultural life.
Reality was that wives of poorer people did visit the agora: likely that the majority of Athenians were poor.
Many women did work in the agora, but not clear if they were citizen women, metics or slaves.
Some women traded foodstuff, perfume or garlands.
Some women were tavern-keepers or woolworkers.
Women don't appear in occupations where real money could be made.
Many known occupations of women overlap with those of female slaves.
One area of commerce under female control was prostitution: courtesans were usually metics; prostitutes were mostly slaves
working in brothels run by a woman or a man.
Domestic role
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The social ideal was that women spent most time at home and indoors.
The ideal only related to a minority i.e. the wealthy.
Poorer women would have worked: in agriculture if from the country; in
trade/shops if from town.
Amongst the better-off women, part of their time was spent in religious
activities including festivals, so not always at home.
Sources do reveal that wealthy women met the ideal 'spinning wool, baking
bread, keeping house'.
Wealthier women would learn to supervise the house slaves; guard the
house provisions; budget expenditure and arrange for storing belongings
neatly.
Women also responsible for the nurture of children.
Women appear in the sources to spend time together.
Women of wealthier families had their own quarters in the home.
Wealthier women had less opportunity to mix socially.
Euripides (485-406BCE)
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Euripides was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Greece (the other two being
Aeschylus and Sophocles).
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Euripides, unlike Aeschylus and Sophocles, had no significant official public life in 5th-century
Athens. The size of his library suggests instead a private intellectual life. He won first prize at
the annual dramatic contests less often than the other two because, probably, of what
Aristotle later would call "irregularities" -- actually his nonconformist and iconoclastic attitude
regarding Greek religion and Athenian politics.
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At the time of Euripides, the upper classes were the only ones represented on stage as worthy of serious
consideration. Though he used the traditional form of the drama, he had some very different things to
say, and he said them in a language that was much easier to understand. He used many everyday
expressions. He was the first to introduce heroes in rags and on crutches and in tears. He treated slaves,
women, and children.
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Euripides was a serious questioner of the values of his day. As a realistic person, he often placed modern
ideas and opinions in the mouths of traditional characters.
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Euripides also wrote about religion, revenge, and all-consuming love.
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Euripides treated myths sensibly and expected men to use their logical powers.
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All of his existing plays are concerned with three basic themes: war, women, and religion.
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He investigated the social, political, religious, and philosophical issues of his day, and he truly loved
Athens and sympathized genuinely with suffering humanity.