Tragedy
A dramatic genre invoking catharsis through human suffering.
Tragedy is a dramatic genre centered on human suffering, where terrible or sorrowful events befall a central figure or group. Its traditional aim is to produce catharsis—a "pain [that] awakens pleasure"—in the audience. Although many cultures have created forms that generate this paradoxical response, the word "tragedy" most often points to a specific dramatic tradition that has been crucial to Western civilization’s self-definition. This tradition is multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has consistently been used to evoke a powerful sense of cultural identity and historical continuity, uniting, as Raymond Williams puts it, "the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity."
The word itself comes from Ancient Greek τραγῳδία, meaning "goat song," from τράγος (he-goat) and ᾠδή (song). Scholars suspect this may refer to a time when a goat was the prize in a choral dancing competition or was danced around before ritual sacrifice. Alternatively, Athenaeus of Naucratis (2nd–3rd century CE) claimed the original form was trygodia, from trygos (grape harvest) and ode (song), because these events first occurred during the grape harvest. Writing in 335 BCE, long after the Golden Age of 5th-century Athenian tragedy, Aristotle gave the earliest surviving explanation of the art form’s origin in his *Poetics*. He argued that tragedy developed from improvisations by the leader of choral dithyrambs—hymns sung and danced in praise of Dionysos. Aristotle wrote that tragedy, arising from an improvisatory beginning, grew little by little as poets developed each new part, passing through many changes until it attained its own nature and came to a halt. In the same work, he offered a scholastic definition: tragedy is an enactment of a deed that is important, complete, and of a certain magnitude, using enriched language, enacted rather than recited, and through pity and fear it effects relief (catharsis) to such emotions.
There is dissent to the dithyrambic origin, based on differences in chorus shapes and dancing styles, with a common descent from pre-Hellenic fertility and burial rites also suggested. Friedrich Nietzsche, in *The Birth of Tragedy* (1872), proposed the name originated from a chorus of goat-like satyrs in the original dithyrambs. Scott Scullion notes abundant evidence for tragôidia as "song for the prize goa
- origin
- Ancient Greece, 6th century BCE
- earliest_extant_work
- The Persians by Aeschylus
- key_philosophers
- Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Benjamin, Camus, Lacan, Deleuze
- key_playwrights
- Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Jean Racine, Friedrich Schiller, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Nurul Momen, Samuel Beckett, Heiner Müller
- etymology
- From Ancient Greek τραγῳδία 'goat song'
Lore & Background
Originating in the theatre of ancient Greece 2500 years ago, tragedy developed from improvisations of the leader of choral dithyrambs, hymns sung and danced in praise of Dionysos. Aristotle, writing in 335 BCE, provides the earliest surviving explanation for this origin, noting that tragedy grew little by little from these beginnings. Athenian tragedies were performed in late March/early April at an annual state religious festival in honor of Dionysus, presented as a contest between three playwrights who each offered a tetralogy consisting of three tragedies and a concluding satyr play. The theatre of Dionysus at Athens probably held around 12,000 people, and performances were apparently open to all citizens, including women.
Reader's Guide
Tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change across centuries, from ancient Greek works through Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Jean Racine, and Friedrich Schiller, to modern naturalistic tragedy of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, and postmodernist reworkings by Heiner Müller. A long line of philosophers including Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Freud, and Camus have analyzed and criticized the genre. In the wake of Aristotle's Poetics, tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, opposing comedy, and in the modern era has been defined against drama, melodrama, tragicomic, and epic theatre. Both Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal define their epic theatre projects against models of tragedy, though Taxidou reads epic theatre as an incorporation of tragic functions. The word 'tragedy' derives from Ancient Greek 'goat song,' with scholars suspecting this may trace to a time when a goat was either the prize in a competition or was what a chorus danced around prior to ritual sacrifice.
Did You Know?
- The word 'tragedy' derives from Ancient Greek τραγῳδία meaning 'goat song.'
- Only 32 of more than a thousand tragedies performed in the 5th century BCE have survived.
- Aeschylus' The Persians is recognized as the earliest extant Greek tragedy.
- The phrase 'deus ex machina' originates from the mechane, a crane used to hoist gods on stage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is tragedy in theatre?
Tragedy is a dramatic genre built around the suffering of a central figure or group, in which terrible or sorrowful events unfold on stage. Its traditional purpose is to produce catharsis in the audience, a paradoxical release where pain gives way to a strange kind of pleasure.
Where does tragedy come from and what does the word literally mean?
The tradition traces back to Ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE, with Aeschylus's The Persians standing as the earliest surviving work we possess. The term itself comes from the Ancient Greek τραγῳδία, which translates simply as 'goat song.'
Which playwrights are most closely tied to the tragic tradition?
The lineage runs from the Greek trio of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides through Seneca, Shakespeare, Racine, and Schiller, extending into modern voices like Ibsen, Strindberg, Beckett, and Heiner Müller. Each era reshaped the form, yet the core concern with human suffering persists.
What is catharsis and why is it central to tragedy?
Catharsis is the emotional purging that tragedy aims to trigger, often described as a pain that paradoxically awakens pleasure in the viewer. While many cultures have devised performance forms that produce this response, the label 'tragedy' most specifically points to the Greek dramatic lineage.
Why do scholars and fans keep returning to tragedy as a concept?
Even though the tradition is multiple and discontinuous, the word has consistently carried a powerful sense of cultural identity and historical continuity for Western civilization. Thinkers ranging from Plato and Aristotle to Nietzsche, Camus, and Deleuze have all treated tragedy as a lens for interrogating what it means to be human.
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