DR. LUCAS MURREY

• Lucas Murrey
• 01 December 2022
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THERE IS NO TRAGIC HERO PART 3 TRAGEDY

Seaford: “[…] just to say something about ‘the tragic hero’ in Athenian tragedy […]”

Murrey: “It doesn’t exist.”

Seaford: “There are no ‘tragic heroes’ in antiquity. The word ‘hero’ in Greek tragedy never occurs referring to a living person. It occurs twice in the entire body of Greek tragedy only referring to people who are dead, that is to say the recipients of hero cult, that is to say, nobody living in Greek tragedy is called a hero. Nor does Aristotle use the word to describe hero. This is an invention of the Renaissance, it certainly becomes important in nineteenth century Germany: Nietzsche of course refers to the tragischer Held, I think Hegel does, maybe Goethe does, already […] it is an invention of the Renaissance which is certainly important to nineteenth century Germany, also nineteenth century England and so on, and this phrase: ‘the tragic hero’ is still in the consciousness of people.”

Murrey: “Right.”

Seaford: “Now these individuals are not called ‘heroes’ in tragedy. What are they called? They are called ‘tyrants’, ‘tyrannos’ and that word and its cognates: ‘tyrannos’, ‘tyranikos’ occurs about a hundred and eighty times.”

Murrey: “And it’s interesting: we have the word ‘tyrant’.”

Seaford: “And so why isn’t it that people refer to ‘the tragic tyrant’ and not ‘the tragic hero’? And it is extraordinary. All these books about ‘tragic heroes’; all this nonsense about ‘tragic heroes’ […] Why?!”

• Lucas Murrey
• 01 December 2022
• 157
• Share