Tragic Form and Conventions

Ancient Greek tragedies should be thought of as closer to opera/operetta than than to our spoken, prose dramas. Though deviations were possible, most tragedies had a typical structure, which derived from the role played by the chorus:

• Prologue: a speech or scene that preceded the entrance of the chorus.
• Parodos: the entrance song of the chorus, sung as they entered the orchestra; the poetic meter is often anapestic (a foot=two short syllables followed by a long syllable), with a “marching” effect.
• Epeisodion/a: usually termed “episodes” in English, these were the scenes in which the actors took the main roles. They consisted primarily of spoken dialogue; the poetic meter is usually iambic (a foot=one short syllable followed by a long syllable) or occasionally trochaic (a foot=one long syllable followed by a short syllable). The dialogue is called stichomythia when it consists of a rapid exchange between two actors each speaking “one liners.” Sometimes the leader of the chorus (the koruphaios) participates in the dialogue. It is possible that some parts of episodes may have been chanted rather than spoken, in the manner of a recitative, and some of the longer “speeches” of the actors were actually lyric solos, sung to the accompaniment of a lyre.
• Stasimon/a: the subsequent choral odes, sung and danced by the chorus, which usually alternated with the episodes. These odes were usually structured in alternating, metrically identical stanzas, called strophe (“turn”) and antistrophe (“counterturn”). If there was a metrically different free-standing stanza following the strophe and antistrophe, this was called an epode. At times the stasimon was replaced by a lyric duet between the lead actor and the chorus; this was called a kommos.
• Exodos: the song sung by the chorus as they left the orchestra, concluding the play.

The following table shows how the Agamemnon illustrates this structure; line numbers refer to Richmond Lattimore's translation. Aeschylus uses various parts of the structure to highlight a different temporal focus.