What is CLASSICAL Tragedy ?

Possibly the classical tragedy appears in  Greece in the fifth BC. Contradiction happens when it is put by Allardyce Nicoll that tragedy appears much earlier in Egypt, after that in India. However, the text of the tragedy first finds out in Athens. 

In ancient Greece, it came to worship Dionysus, the god of vegetation. Tragic plays happened then before the altar of the god.

The word ‘tragedy’ comes from the Greek ‘tragodor’. The word ‘Tragos’ means ‘he-goat’. A chorus was held in front of the altar of the god and goats were offered to the ‘Dionysus’.

Greek tragedy was spirited especially instelling religious themes. God was all powerful and could shape human destiny. It could control human action. Thus human action and suffering, fate and fatalism  were , probably, the matter of treatment of Greek Tragedy in classical tragedy.

In ‘Oedipus Tyrannus’ by Sophocles, we see fatalism. Oedipus has to suffer much due to heinous sins, unfortunately committed by him. He can not escape the destiny and the attitude of god. Aaaaaa

It is note taking that Greek tragedy never played any violent acts. It laid emphasis on the aesthetic sense of man. The brutal things took place outside of the stage and was reported by the messenger. It was one of  the structural features of the Greek tragedy.

Especially Greek tragedy with no action or scene: in the ‘prologue’, an actor came and narrated the events; then in the ‘perodos’, a chorus was held; thereafter, the ‘ exodus’ or the final scene of the play.

There was another important feature which is the playing of the chorus. It was the technical feature which was made by the singer or musician or a band of dancers and singers.

The famous tragedians of ancient Greece were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Famous Tragedies were ‘Ajax’, ‘Alcestis’, ‘ Medea’, ‘Oedipus Tyrannus’ etc.

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