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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 developed Greek tragedy which has actors who have speaking roles. The Dithyramb was a religious ritual where the Dionysus worshipers would dance in a circle around a large phallic symbol, and they would sing and chant. There were fifty worshipers who did this dance and they were in a cult called the Bacchae. The Bacchae would dress up as animals wearing goatskin costumes. Roy C. Flickinger discuses this in his book The Greek Theater And It’s Drama. The dithyramb was an improvisational song and dance in the honor of Dionysus...and was preformed by a band of men provided with goatlike horns, ears, hoofs, and tails and clad in a goatskin (or in a goat-hair loin band) in imitation of Dionysus’ attendant sprites, the satyrs; on account of this costume the choreutae (members of the chorus) were sometimes called tragoi, which is the Greek word for “goats”; in certain localities, as the dithyramb became quasi-literary and took on a dramatic element, its name was changed to satyric drama; still later, as these tendencies increased, especially through the addition of an actor, the satyr-play came to be called tragoidia (“goat-song”), derived from the nickname applied to the caprine choreutae; the chorus still consisted of satyrs and, since these were licentious, bestial creatures, the performance was yet crude and undignified; Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.) Was possibly the first to abandon satyric choreutae and was certainly the first to raise tragedy to the rank of real literature. (2) There were four festivals held in Greece in honor of Dionysus. One was held in the December and called Rural Dionysia. Another was in January and called the Lenaea. The third was held in March and called the Anthesteria. The fourth was held in April, called City Dionysia. During City Dionysia, Greek tragedies would be preformed.
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