How to Understand Greek Tragedy
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
- Greek Tragedy is one of the most influential literary forms that originated in Greece. It is particularly associated with Athens in the 5th century BCE - the period that saw its growth to preeminence. Set in the context of Greek festival practice, Greek Tragedy was formally very complex. Here we take a look at Tragedy's origins, its early history, its form and performance at the dramatic festivals and finally its subject-matter and Aristotle's famous interpretation involving the catharsis of pity and fear.
Questions? Drop me (Aaron) a comment below or email at contact@keimelia.com
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Chapters
00:00 - Intro
00:29 - Step 1: The Basics
01:21 - Step 2: Elements of Greek Drama
02:57 - The Structure of a Tragedy
03:37 - Step 3: Pity, Fear and Catharsis
05:58 - Recommended book: Lesky’s History of Greek Literature
06:32 - Outro
Great video. Superb editing. Crisp audio. I definitely enjoyed it and I praise your work.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this.
👍👍👍💖 Thank you again for excellent video!
Excellent!
Thanks for an amazing video and for your love of the material. When I started reading tragedy, I was amazed at how much it struck me emotionally. I don't know if YT's algorithm would like it, but I'd love a video on how you feel Athenian's would have experienced some of these plays. For example, when watching Aeschylus' Agamemnon, how do they feel about the title character*? Or how do they feel about Ajax in Sophocles' play? I loved Ajax so much in the Iliad, that it was so sad to see him broken like that. But that is my reaction as a modern - what would an Athenian have felt?
* In general, I'm fascinated by the reception of Agamemnon. In his combat scenes, Homer seems to celebrate him as a war hero, and in confrontations with Thersites, I think we are meant to dislike Thersites (and thus support A). Yet as a general, Agamemnon's performance is abysmal and the tradition did seem to give him a remarkably humiliating end. As a modern, with no love of hierarchy or imperialism I naturally dislike Agamemnon, but I'm far more interested in Archaic and Classical era greek views on him. Any insight on this would be very welcome!
Great suggestion. Agamemnon especially in Tragedy is a very unsympathetic character. I think of him as "Legitimate Authority" with all the positives and negatives that come with that. For the future!
Another fantastic, high quality video. Would you recommend reading Aeschylus/Sophocles/Euripides before diving into Lesky's book, or is there something to be said for having a more solid appreciation of the context in which they were written first?
Great question. I like to be guided by what I find most exciting: if I can't wait to read the plays then I dive right in. But if I have an inkling that I'm missing something essential or important I try to get more context. It can vary by play as well. There is a well known saying that when reading Oedipus Rex you just focus on the play (and ignore the cultural context) but when reading the Bacchae you focus on the context first (and then the play). I am glad you enjoyed the video!
I am struck by how rigidly structured and alien these forms of ... entertainment (?) are from what we have today. Or rather, I don't understand the written descriptions. I would like to see a couple of different types of ancient Greek play (tragedy, comedy, etc), done in era-appropriate clothing and setting, but with English translations. I really have no idea what this is all about.
Great point. One way to think about it is that all of our modern types of entertainment have formal features which much seem alien to someone without the same history or experiences. Tragedy grew out of choral songs which were very very old. Tragedy has probably more in common with the formal features of music than it does with movies or novels.