The Dionysian elements present in the origin of Greek Tragedy

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the Dionysian elements in the origin of Greek Tragedy, exploring the hypothesis that such performance may have originated from ancient tragoidía, the "song or dance around the goat sacrificed" in honor to Dionysus. The project is guided through the referential studies of Pickard-Cambridge (1927), Kerényi (2002) and Burkert (1966). The research has the intention of understanding the formation context of the tragic art in the 6th century B.C., following the assumption that considers Thespis the inventor of the tragic spectacle, and of investigating the Dionysian rites that were practiced in Attica. The research will be developed in two stages: the first is constituted of the reading and analysis of the specific bibliography on the theme; and the second is constituted of the analysis and interpretation of the Thespis's preserved fragments. Sixteen fragments that mention the poet were selected as primary sources for the analysis. These fragments were exposed and analyzed by Pickard-Cambridge (1927, p. 97-121), in the book Dithyramb, Tragedy and Comedy, which was translated into Portuguese by Eudoro de Souza (2003, p. 205-08), in his edition of Aristotle's Poetics. (AU)