Terms
“a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character”
What is a tragedy?
excessive pride, often a tragic flaw
What is hubris?
a literary technique by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.
What is dramatic irony?
the tragedy we read this semester
What is Oedipus the King?
the genre of Ovid's Metamorphoses
What is mock epic?
an adjective or phrase that is used to express the characteristic of a person or thing, such as Ivan the Terrible
What is an epithet?
a goal of tragedy, according to Aristotle: the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions, in particular pity and terror
What is catharsis?
a trait in a character, usually the protagonist or hero, that leads to his or her downfall
What is tragic flaw?
Oedipus's wife and mother
Who is Jocasta?
the century Ovid's Metamorphoses was written?
What is the first century CE?
a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.
What is a myth?
What is in medias res?
a long narrative poem about the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation
What is an epic?
the mythical son who fell to his death because he flew too close to the sun
Who is Icarus?
the king who foolishly wished that all he touched would turn to gold
Who is Midas?
an extended comparison often running to several lines, used typically in epic poetry
What is an epic simile?
A temple of Apollo where a priestess conveyed prophecies from the god
What is the Oracle of Delphi?
"a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it"
Who is Virgil?
What is pity?
the god of many fun things (winemaking and wine, fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy) theater chief among them
Who is Dionysus?
“a representation of a serious complete action, which has magnitude in embellished speech . . . represented by people acting and not by narration, accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotions”
What is a tragedy? (as defined by Aristotle)
In a work of drama, a moment described by Aristotle when as a change of a situation into its opposite
What is reversal?
Who is Io?
the old couple who offered hospitality to Jupiter and Mercury and were rewarded by being spared when their town was destroyed
Who are Baucis and Philemon?