CriticaLink | Aristotle: Poetics | Terms

dithyrambic poetry

Performed at festivals honoring the god Dionysus, dithyrambic poetry incorporated choral song and dance. One theory of the origin of Greek tragedy argues that dithyrambic poetry was eventually coupled with a performance by a single actor playing the role of a legendary hero, giving rise to the basic structure of the tragedy.

• Aeschylus
• Aristophanes
• Euripides
• Sophocles

• anagnorisis
• catharsis
• character
• comedy
• complex plot
• complication
• denouement
• deus ex machina
• diction
• Dionysus
• dithyrambic poetry
• drama
• epic
• fear
• genre
• hamartia
• hexameter
• iambic
• medium
• mimesis
• mode
• narrative
• nomic poetry
• object
• pathos
• peripeteia
• phallic songs
• pity
• plot
• poetry
• simple plot
• song
• spectacle
• telos
• thought
• tragedy
• trope
• unities