Greek Tragety Terms Sets 1-3

Question 1

Tragic hero

Answer 1

a character, usually of high birth, neither totally good nor totally evil, whose downfall is brought about by some weakness or error in judgment (hamartia)

Example: Oedipus in Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus Rex’

Question 2

Sophoclean tragic hero

Answer 2

is a great figure strangely out of tune with their own times
is plagued or doomed by fate (or the mysterious will of the gods)
experiences a reversal of fortune (peripetia) and loses everything important in this reversal
has a readiness to die rather than surrender
meets suffering and death with a greatness of soul

Example: Oedipus in Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus Rex’

Question 3

Oikos

Answer 3

“home,” is the concept of the household (dominated by women and kinship)

Example: The role of Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’ ‘Oresteia’

Question 4

Polis

Answer 4

“city,” is the concept of the collective city-state (dominated by men and power/money)

Example: The role of Agamemnon in Aeschylus’ ‘Oresteia’

Question 5

Logos

Answer 5

persuading with reason

Question 6

Pathos

Answer 6

persuading with emotion

Question 7

Ethos

Answer 7

persuading through a speaker’s authority/ credibility

Question 8

Hamartia

Answer 8

A tragic flaw, weakness of character, or error in judgement, which causes the downfall of the hero

Question 9

Hubris

Answer 9

Arrogance or overweening pride which causes the hero’s transgression against the gods; usually, the tragic flaw

Question 10

Anagnorisis

Answer 10

Some recognition or discovery on the part of the hero; change from ignorance to knowledge

Question 11

Peripeteia

Answer 11

A sudden reversal of fortune or circumstances for a character

Question 12

Nemesis

Answer 12

comes from the Greek goddess Nemesis - the goddess of revenge and divine retribution sought against people guilty of hubris. In a general sense, nemesis refers to an unbeatable rival, or an inescapable situation that causes misery and death

Question 13

Catharsis

Answer 13

Purgation of emotions of pity and fear which leaves the viewer both relieved and elated

Question 14

In media res

Answer 14

Latin for “into the middle of things”, usually describes a narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of a story and usually at some crucial point in the action

Question 15

Ode

Answer 15

A lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter

Question 16

Paradox

Answer 16

A statement which seems on its face to be logically contradictory or absurd, yet turns out to be interpretable in a way that makes good sense. (“I can resist anything but temptation.” -Oscar Wilde; This the the beginning of the end.”)

Question 17

Oxymoron

Answer 17

A future of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (ex. Deafening silence; seriously funny)

Question 18

Verbal irony

Answer 18

A statement in Wichita the meaning that a speaker implies differs sharply from the meaning that is seemingly expressed

Question 19

Dramatic irony

Answer 19

A situation in a play or narrative in which the audience/reader shares knowledge with the author of present or future circumstances of which is character is ignorant

(The character unknowingly acts in a way we recognize to be grossly inappropriate to the actual circumstances/expects the opposite of what we know that fate holds in store/says something that anticipates that actual outcome, but not at all in the way that the character intends.)