Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

This chapter deals with the origins of tragedy and, in that context, considers whether and to what extent tragic drama was a religious phenomenon. Opinion on these matters rests on painstaking interpretation of brief and often obscure ancient texts, and the scholarly literature is correspondingly vast and controversial. I here analyze much of the primary ancient evidence with a minimum of doxographical detail, referring to influential studies written or available in English where further bibliographical guidance can be found. We must evaluate as best we can what evidence we have for the origins of tragedy before hazarding any conclusions about its religious or ritual nature; this may seem obvious, but the assumption that tragedy is by origin a religious phenomenon is so common and ingrained that the question is often begged. Modern discussion of the issue of origins is in large part an extended commentary on Aristotle's brief treatment in the Poetics . The key passages are these: Coming into being from an improvisational beginning–both it [tragedy] and comedy, the former from those leading the dithyramb, the latter from those leading the phallic songs, which even at the present day are still a customary practice in many cities–it was enhanced little by little as they developed each element of it that became manifest, and after passing through many changes tragedy ceased to change, ... log in or subscribe to read full text