Tragic Pathos
Pity and Fear in Greek Philosophy and Tragedy

An examination of pity and fear as responses to tragedy in ancient Greek thought.

Dana LaCourse Munteanu (Author)

9781107526587, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 May 2015

294 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.4 kg

Scholars have often focused on understanding Aristotle's poetic theory, and particularly the concept of catharsis in the Poetics, as a response to Plato's critique of pity in the Republic. However, this book shows that, while Greek thinkers all acknowledge pity and some form of fear as responses to tragedy, each assumes for the two emotions a different purpose, mode of presentation and, to a degree, understanding. This book reassesses expressions of the emotions within different tragedies and explores emotional responses to and discussions of the tragedies by contemporary philosophers, providing insights into the ethical and social implications of the emotions.

Introduction
Part I. Theoretical Views about Pity and Fear as Aesthetic Emotions: 1. Drama and the emotions: an Indo-European connection?
2. Gorgias: a strange trio, the poetic emotions
3. Plato: from reality to tragedy and back
4. Aristotle: the first 'theorist' of the aesthetic emotions
Part II. Pity and Fear within Tragedies: 5. An introduction
6. Aeschylus: Persians
7. Prometheus Bound
8. Sophocles: Ajax
9. Euripides: Orestes
Appendix: catharsis and the emotions in the definition of tragedy in the Poetics.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]