Classical Tragedy

 Aristotle identifies tragedy as the most refined version of poetry dealing with lofty matters. “The Poetics”, a treatise which was  composed at least 50 years after the death of Sophocles, is primarily about the Tragedy that is considered the highest form of poetry.

According to Aristotle who first defined it using the Greek plays that were available to him,  has an assessment of the nature and function of the tragedy which is:

 ‘Έστιν οὖν Τραγωδία μίμησις πράξεως σπουδαίας καὶ τελείας μέγεθος ἐχούσης, ἡδυσμένῳ λόγῳ, χωρὶς ἑκάστου τῶν εἰδῶν ἐν τοῖς μορίοις, δρώντων καὶ οὐ δι’ ἀπαγγελίας, δι’ ἐλέου καὶ φόβου περαίνουσα τὴν τῶν τοιούτων παθημάτων κάθαρσιν.

That is to say:

“the imitation of an action, serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude, in a language beautified in different parts with different kinds of embellishment, through actions and not in a narrative form, and through scenes of pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its Catharsis of such emotions”.