Does the rite of Forefathers' Eve really derive from the Old Prussian "feast of the goat"? An attempt to resolve inaccuracies related to Mickiewicz's vision of the origin of the rite of Forefathers' Eve

In the second edition of the preface to “Forefathers' Eve” part two, Mickiewicz mentioned the distant origin of the rite of Forefathers' Eve, which, according to the romantic poet, in pagan times, was known as the "feast of the goat". The Slavic bard obtained information about the Old Prussian ceremonial sacrifice of the goat through the “Chronicle of Prussia” by Simon Grunau. Until now, researchers mainly thought that this way he wanted to allude to classical antiquity, since he associated the “feast of the goat” with “the song of the goat”, and thus with the origin of Greek tragedy. The purpose of this article is to identify what type of festivity the “feast of the goat” is and to see whether it can really be identified with the rite of Forefathers' Eve.

Brecht and Tragedy

This wide-ranging, detailed and engaging study of Brecht's complex relationship with Greek tragedy and tragic tradition argues that this is fundamental for understanding his radicalism. Featuring an extensive discussion of The Antigone of Sophocles (1948) and further related works (the Antigone model book and the Small Organon for the Theatre), this monograph includes the first-ever publication of the complete set of colour photographs taken by Ruth Berlau. This is complemented by comparatist explorations of many of Brecht's own plays as his experiments with tragedy conceptualized as the 'big form'. The significance for Brecht of the Greek tragic tradition is positioned in relation to other formative influences on his work (Asian theatre, Naturalism, comedy, Schiller and Shakespeare). Brecht emerges as a theatre artist of enormous range and creativity, who has succeeded in re-shaping and re-energizing tragedy and has carved paths for its continued artistic and political relevance.

The Evolution of Tyrant Tropes in Greek Tragedy

<p>Tyranny (tyrannis) is a name given to a type of Greek monarchy that came into being in the seventh century B.C.E. The democratisation of Greece and the transference of aristocratic ideas of equality and liberty to the whole citizen population led the vilification of tyranny as the opposite of democracy and its extensive use as a foil for democracy in Athenian politics. This political idea made its way into literature, including tragedy where it was one of several important anachronistic political ideas. The demonization of the tyrant also led to the development of tropes to create the stereotype of the tyrant. These tropes are catalogued in Plato and Aristotle and widely recognised in Herodotus, but as Lanza (1977) and Seaford (2003) have pointed out, they also occur in tragedy, to the same extent as they do in prose. The tropes can roughly be split into two groups – those that are based on real power-conserving strategies and those that were created to characterise the tyrant as a moral monster.</p>

The Evolution of Tyrant Tropes in Greek Tragedy

<p>Tyranny (tyrannis) is a name given to a type of Greek monarchy that came into being in the seventh century B.C.E. The democratisation of Greece and the transference of aristocratic ideas of equality and liberty to the whole citizen population led the vilification of tyranny as the opposite of democracy and its extensive use as a foil for democracy in Athenian politics. This political idea made its way into literature, including tragedy where it was one of several important anachronistic political ideas. The demonization of the tyrant also led to the development of tropes to create the stereotype of the tyrant. These tropes are catalogued in Plato and Aristotle and widely recognised in Herodotus, but as Lanza (1977) and Seaford (2003) have pointed out, they also occur in tragedy, to the same extent as they do in prose. The tropes can roughly be split into two groups – those that are based on real power-conserving strategies and those that were created to characterise the tyrant as a moral monster.</p>

Nietzsche’s Idiosyncrasy Against Euripides

The main purpose of this article is to present a critique of the Nietzschean reading of the evaluative status of Euripides’ poetry within the historical-genealogical process that the philosopher understands as constituting the decline of the Greek tragedy. The negative character – supposedly radicalizing, potentializing and consuming this hypothetical trajectory of decline – of Euripidian poetry will here be imputed to the very theoretical conditioning of the Nietzschean conception of the tragic. To do this, we will explore three fundamental guidelines: (1) the subordination of Nietzsche to a traditional interpretative line; (2) his tendentious disregard for the concrete content of the whole Euripidian work; (3) the unfounded identification between Socrates and Euripides.