Tragedy

1. Greek tragedy to Plato

Tragedy developed into a distinct genre when dialogue was added to dithyrambs, which were choral songs to Dionysus. In about 534 bce the poet Thespis is said to have introduced dialogue between the chorus (or its representative) and a choral leader, and in about 500 bce Aeschylus introduced a second actor, thereby making dialogue independent of the chorus. Either could be seen as the originator of tragedy. Greek tragedy is written in verse and is hence a type of poetry. Poets were widely regarded as teachers of morality and religion, and tragedies were performed at annual festivals rich with civic and religious significance. The classic tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, all written in the fifth century BCE, dramatize well-known myths, occasionally altered in their details, involving important and powerful families. There were no female tragedians, and all roles were performed by men, including those for female characters. Tragedy arose out of ritual, and it has been argued that the exclusively male participation in ritual reinforced a gender-linked social hierarchy.

Plato’s predecessor, Gorgias of Leontini from Sicily, holds that tragedy and other poetry produce pleasure through deception. He also recognizes the two main emotions generally associated with tragedy, pity and fear, though why precisely these two emotions should be singled out as characteristic of the genre remains a subject of debate today.Plato argues against Gorgias that poetry is imitation, not necessarily deception, but that writing, performing and viewing performances still could have undesirable, damaging effects on a person’s ability to reason. In his early dialogue Ion, he argues that one writes good poetry and performs (recites) it well by ‘divine inspiration’, not rational understanding, and that the audience’s emotional responses to it are also not rational.

Though Plato himself enjoyed tragedy and recognized its power, he disallows any role for imitative or mimetic poetry (as opposed to narrative poetry) in the Republic (c.380–367 bce), his ideal state. One reason is that poetry often portrays gods doing things that are not good models for behaviour (Republic 387b et passim). Another is that most people enjoy giving vent to emotions and are bored by representations of people being intelligent and temperate in their behaviour (Republic 604e). Further, what we enjoy vicariously tends to become part of ourselves (Republic 606b). The audience’s vicarious pleasure in indulging their appetites (for example, for sex), along with pains and pleasures ‘of the soul’ (such as anger), strengthen desires that ought to be brought under the control of reason (Republic 606d).