Terms from Greek Tragedy Flashcards
Anagnorisis (Discovery)
A discovery; a change from ignorance to knowledge
Antistrophe
The 2nd part of a choral ode, where the chorus moves from west to east in Greek Tragedy.
Catharsis
A purging of negative emotions through pity of fear
Episode
All that comes in between two whole choral songs
Episodic Plot
There is neither probability nor necessity in the sequence of its episodes. Aristotle considered this the worst of all plots.
Epode
A third part of the choral ode, delivered by the chorus while standing still in Greek tragedies. The words are usually in rhyming couplet.
Exodus
All that follows after the last choral song
Harmatia
A protagonist’s fatal error
Parados
The whole first statement of the chorus
Peripeteia (Reversal)
The change of the kind described from one state of things with the play to its opposite.
Plot
the combination of the 5 incidents
Prologue
all that precedes the parade of the chorus
Stasimon
A song of the chorus without anapaests (a form of meter) or trochees (another form of meter).
Strophe
The first part of a choral ode in Greek tragedies where the chorus moves from east to west. Usually delivered in iambic meter of varying lengths.
Tragedy (Aristotle’s Definition)
an imitation of an action that is serious, has magnitude, complete in itself (beginning, middle and a end); in language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic form with incidents arousing pity and fear, thus to achieve catharsis of such emotions.
