Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1 146 TRAGOEDIA. TRAGOEDIA.
songs; the last divided into the parode and stasi- which strongly distinguishes the ancient tragedy
mon. Thi 7rp;Adyos is all that part of a tragedy from the modern, and to which is owing in some
which prebedes the parodos of the chorus, i. e. the measure the practical and quiet irony in the handfirst act. The &reMrCLroe is all the part between ling of a subject, described by Thirlwall (Phil.
ivhole choral odes. The S~ooos that part which 1//es. ii. p. 483, &c.) as a characteristic of the
has no choral ode after it. Of the choral part the tragedy of Sophocles.
srdpoeos is the first speech of the whole chorus (not The functions of the Chorus in Greek Tragedy
broken up into parts): the stasimon is without were very important, as described by Horace (lr.
anapaests and trochees. These two divisions were Poet. 193),
sung by all the choreutae (KoLvm amrasVTcv), but
s~ung by all thle: choreutae (KOL~i &rrdrVoWv), but ~, Actoris partes chorus officiumique virile
the'" songs on the stage " and the KirJA)oi by a cols ars c s o q e
pa rt onl a A th — -rie d he-,c-m'ir l io _,Defendat: neu quid medios intercinat actus,
part only (oM li T,arb'rx afiroIS rcs tra U ~:Ic/OL).
Quod non proposito conducat, et hbereat apte," &c.
The commlus, which properly means a wailing fo
the deed, was generally used to express strong ex-. We must conceive of it, says A. W. Schlegel, as
citement, or lively sympathy with grief and suffer- the personification of the thought inspired by the
ing, especially by Aeschylus. It was common to represented action; in other words, it often exthe actors and a portion only of the chorus (KOltqrbs presses the reflections of a dispassionate and rightbE abpoivos, coiLVbS XOpOO, Kail ar'b rciljK7s), whence minded spectator, and inculcates the lessons of moits derivative CKO/lAaTLruCd is used to designate rality and resignation to the will of heaven, taught
broken and interrupted songs sung either by indi- by the occurrence of the piece in which it is envidual choreutae or divisions of the chor us. (Mill- gaged. Besides this, the chorus enabled a poet to
ler, Eumen. p. 84.) Again the 7rdupoos was so produce an image of the "council of elders," which
named as being the passage-song of the chorus existed under the heroic governments4 and under
sung while it was advancing to its proper place in whose advice and in whose presence the ancient
the orchestra, and therefore in asripaeestic or march- princes of the Greek tragedy generally acted.
ing verse: the ocirdl-iyov, as being chaunted by the This image was the more striking and vivid, inaschorus when standing still in its proper position. much as the chorus was taken from the people at
(Suid. and Etyie. 1leagn.) large, and did not at all differ from the appearance
With respect to the ends or purposes of Tragedy, and stature of ordinary men; so that the contrast
Aristotle observes that they {are best effected by or relation between them and the actors was the
the representation of a chalnge of fortune from same as thtat of the Homeric Xaoi and &'.taKCres.
prosperity to adversity, happening to a person Lastly, the choral songs produced an agreeable
neither eminently vittuious nor just, nor yet in- pause in the action, breaking the piece into parts,
volved in misfortutne by deliberate vice or villany, while they presented to the spectator a lyrical
but by some error of human frailty, and that he and musical expression of his own emotions, or
should also be a person of high fame and eminent suggested to him lofty thoughts and great arguprosperity, like Oedipus or Thyestes. Hence, he ments. 2is Schlegel says, the chorus was the
adds, Euripides is not censurable, as is generally spectator idealised. With respect to the number
supposed; for tragedies with an unhappy termina- of the chorus, Miiller (Lit. of Greece, 300) thinkstion like his, have always the most tragic effect; that out of the dithyrambic chorus of 50 a quadand Euripides is the most tragic of all poets, i. e. rangular chorus of 48 persons was first formed,
succeeds best in producing pity: an expression and that this was divided into sets of 12, one for
especially true of some scenes in the Medea. In each play of a tetraloge; but in the time of SoAeschylus, the feelings of pity and melancholy phocles, the tragic chorus amounted to 15, a
interest are generally excited by the relation in number which the ancient grammarians always
which his heroes stand to destiny. He mostly presuppose in speaking of its arrangements, though
represents them as vainly struggling against a it might be that the form of the Aeschylean trablind but irresistible fate, to whose power (ac- gedy afterwards became obsolete.
cording to the old Homeric notion) even the father The preceding account should be read in connecof gods and men is forced to yield, and it is only tion with the articles CHORtus DIONYSIA, HISTRIO,
occasionally, as in the splendid chorus of the Eume- and THEATRtI.
aides (522), that we trace in him any intimations The explanation of the following phrases may
of a moral and retributive government of the world. be useful.
Hence there is a want of moral lessons in his lapaXdp'y77q eta: this word was-used in case of
works. In Sophocles, on the contrary, we see a fourth actor appearing on the stage; probably
indications of a different tone of thottghit; and the because the choragus was required to be at an
superintendence of a directing and controlling extra expense in supplying him with costume, &c.;
power is distinctly recognized: " the great Zeus sometimes actors so called spoke; Is the character
in heaven, who superintends and directs all things.' of Pylades, does (Aesch. C0/eaph. 900-902)
(Electr. 174; Thirlwall, Phil. Mzis. vol. ii. p. 492.) sometimes they were mtites.
The materials of Greek tragedy were the national flapaelctusov: this phrase was used when one
mythology, of the choreutae spoke in song, instead of a fourth
" Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line, iactor, probably near or behind the side-scenes.
Or the tale of Troy divine." Flapwlyopa5as-ra were voices off the stage, and not
seen, as the frogs in the Ranae. (Pollux, iv. 109;
The exceptions to this were the two historical Schol. in Aristoph. Pac. 113.)
tragedies, the Capture of Milettis," by Phryni- fIapaXopupaTrae, persons who came forward but
chus, and the" Persians" of Aeschylus; but they once, something like the srporoo.rca 7rporanrTne, or
belong to an early period of the art. Hence the introductory persons who open a drama and never
plot and story of the Grecian tragedy were of appear again; as the watchman in the Agamemnlecessity known to the spectators, a circumstance non, and Polydorus in the Hecuba. Terence also