Introduction to Classical Greek Tragedy
Though Attic Tragedy or Greek Tragedy (as it is commonly known) is immediately relevant
to the ancient polis of Athens and the civilisation it spawned in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE,
its cultural impact runs through the historical evolution of literature in the West up to our
contemporary age. It is based on the powerful idea that acute suffering ennobles the soul and
awakens the human mind to a higher state of consciousness. This idea has indeed influenced
and shaped a great many individual and collective worldviews wherein resilience, endurance
and the stoic acceptance of life’s inscrutable difficulties are regarded as virtues.
Meaning in Context
The accurate description of the genre is Tragic Poetry wherein the word “tragic” refers to a
mood of high seriousness involving existential suffering attributed to fate or tragic flaw
(hamartia) embodied by the protagonist or main character. The ancient Greek philosopher
Aristotle has traced the origins of Tragic Poetry in the dithyrambic choral songs performed by
poets (since the 7th Century BCE) as ritual offerings to the god Dionysus in the spring festival
of the City Dionysia. The choreographed dances and dialogue between individual characters
were later innovations made by tragic poets of the 5th Century BCE. The poetic description of
suffering, and its later dramatic representation through action, were intended to move the
audience into a cathartic state of collective outpourings of grief and the purging of negative
feelings. As such, the effectiveness of Tragic Poetry was measured in terms of its ability to
mobilise and circulate affects like Pity and Terror (Aristotle, Poetics: Chapters 13 and 14) as
well as its psychologically therapeutic appeal to a collective conscience.
Why Suffering?
Eminent critics and historians like Bernard Knox, Moses Finley and Fernand Braudel have
offered ample evidence about the scarcities, hostile topography and a severely limited set of
economic choices that marked the lives of the Greeks in the Bronze Age ─ an age that
corresponds to the heroic poetry and epic song cycles attributed to Homer. The Greek
islanders could depend much less on the unyielding rocky outcrops of land compared to
maritime occupations economic stability. Through relentless conquest, however, they united
the people of these discrete islands and fashioned a civilisation steeped in the ideals of
military valour and sacrifice. The hardness of lives coupled with unpredictability and
misfortune at every step determined their outlook towards life. While their philosophy was
characterised by an attitude of stoic equanimity, their religion set the stage for an interesting
tension between gods and men. The gods were distinguished from men by virtue of their
immortality. However, mortal men were also sceptical of these gods who were believed to
hold a sway over their misfortune-ridden lives and inscrutable fates. The gods were perceived
as being capable of mischief and blind malice; hence, men were loath to attribute any moral
superiority to the immortals. Instead, by embracing suffering and courageously accepting the
manipulation of fate in the hands of the gods, men defiantly asserted the nobility of mortal
lives. By the dawn of the Classical Civilisation, religion in Greece had undergone some
changes and the gods were seen as indisputable objects of reverence. Yet, the earthy embrace
of suffering continued to be respected as a source of nobility and spiritual self-knowledge
(anagnorisis).
Why We Value Greek Tragedy
A further addition to the valency and significance of suffering comes through the evolution of
Tragic Poetry in the 4th and 5th centuries BCE. Through the surviving extant plays of
Aeschylus, Euripedes and Sophocles, readers may discern how the excessive and irrational
impulses that shape the subtext of desire and provoke individual aggression are eventually
frustrated or tempered through fate that is controlled by a set of more objective forces that lie
beyond the individual’s control. The Athenian citizens celebrated sophrosyne or moderation
in all spheres of life and preferred an enlightened view of the conflict between the irrational
(Dionysian) impulses that had to be appeased but eventually tempered by the rational
(Apollonian) exercise of the intellect that submitted to the concern for social harmony. This
conflict or antagonism between the irrational and the rational was staple to the dramatic plot
of the Classical Greek Tragedy. However, and much more importantly for us, it also
anticipated concerns central to modern philosophy (Hegel) and psychology (Freud).
Further Reading and Listening
Knox, Bernard (1964) The Heroic Temper. University of California Press
Segal, Charles (1999) Tragedy and Civilization: An Interpretation of Sophocles. University
of Oklahoma Press
Davis, Michael (2018) The Philosophy of Tragedy: 28 Lecture Modules delivered at the
Sarah Lawrence College, New York. https://www.openculture.com/the-philosophy-of-
tragedy-a-free-course-on-the-philosophy-of-great-greek-tragedies
