Attitudes Towards Suffering in Greek Literature from Homer to Euripides

Abstract

The subject is approached through a discussion of the use of terms describing actions which cause suffering, which itself can be either deserved or undeserved. The use of ethical terms in tragedy is examined, using as a starting point Aristotle's remarks in Poetics 1453b15ff on the kind of action which causes a change of fortune in the best kind of plot - structure. But attitudes towards suffering in tragedy must be viewed in relation to those expressed by earlier poets. There are three parts to this thesis. In the first, the use of ethical terms in Homer, the only pre-fifth century poet to present full-scale depictions of actions, is discussed. The relevance of the situations they describe in the plot structures of his poems is also seen. The second part consists of an examination of the developments in meaning of these words in other pre-fifth century poetry. The contexts in which they are used are important, as there is no depicting of action in this poetry. Finally, all the passages in tragedy containing ethical terms are discussed and the relevance of the actions they describe in the plot structures of the plays is seen. Several conclusions are reached. The cause of deserved suffering, in Homer called άτασθαλία is almost invariably ßβρτς in tragedy. Actions described as ßβρτς cause the suffering in almost all the double-issue plays, in which the fortunes of the better characters change for the better and those of the worse for the worse. In single issue plays of the kind which Aristotle calls the most effective, suffering comes from either άτη (‘bemusement’) or αμαρία, neither of which involve quilt and both of which involve ignorance. As the verb άμαστάνЄτν develops the sense ‘to err, make a mistake’, which it has in only two Homeric passages, it comes to be used to describe the actions of a man in άτη (‘bemusement’). In the poetry of Theognis the meanings of άτη (‘bemusement’) and άμαρτťα can be seen to be becoming similar, and in tragedy the use of the latter almost replaces that of the former.