The aristotelian concept of tragedy and Euripides' ion

Abstract

This research intends to investigate whether Euripides' tragedy Ion may or may not be considered a play with comic aspects based on what Aristotle states in his Poetics. Many critics from Antiquity to the present day, influenced by the philosopher's writings, characterized the work as a comedy or considered it to be something in between the two genres. Assuming that the treatment given to tragedy and to mimesis as a whole in the Poetics is not only aesthetic, but closely related to the Aristotelian ethical theory, the investigation will also discuss the ethical aspects that influenced the formulation of the tragic genre in the Poetics, and how they may be perceived in Euripides' play, thus allowing a better understanding of Ion's tragic (and possibly comical) aspects regarding the poet's treatment of the character (ethos) and actions (praxis) of the people represented in the drama.