= Poetics_(Aristotle) =

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= Poetics_(Aristotle) =
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Introduction
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Aristotle's 'Poetics' ( 'Peri poietikês'; ; ) is the earliest
surviving work of Greek dramatic theory and the first extant
philosophical treatise to solely focus on literary theory. In this
text, Aristotle offers an account of , which refers to poetry or, more
literally, "the poetic art," deriving from the term for "poet, author,
maker," . Aristotle divides the art of poetry into verse, drama
(comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play), lyric poetry, and epic poetry.
The genres all share the function of mimesis, but differ in:
# Musical rhythm, harmony, meter, and melody;
# The goodness of the characters; and
# The mode of storytelling.

The surviving book of 'Poetics' is primarily concerned with drama. The
analysis of tragedy constitutes the core of the discussion.

Although the text is universally acknowledged in the Western critical
tradition, "every detail about this seminal work has aroused divergent
opinions." A few scholarly debates on the 'Poetics' have been most
prominent: the meanings of catharsis and hamartia, the Classical
unities, and whether Aristotle contradicts himself between chapters 13
and 14.Takeda, Arata (2025). 'Die verkannte Tragödie: Theoriebildung
und Wissenswandel zwischen Antike und Neuzeit'. Weilerswist: Velbrück,
2025. pp. 297-436.
*
*

Background
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Aristotle's works on aesthetics consist of the 'Poetics', 'Politics'
(Bk VIII), and 'Rhetoric'.
* The 'Poetics' was lost to the Western world for a long time, but
was rediscovered in the West during the Middle Ages and early
Renaissance through a Latin translation of an Arabic version written
by Averroes. The accurate Greek-Latin translation made by William of
Moerbeke in 1278 was virtually ignored. At some point in antiquity,
the original text of the 'Poetics' was divided into two, with each
"book" written on a separate roll of papyrus. Only the first part,
which focuses on tragedy and epic, survives. The lost second part
addressed comedy. Some scholars speculate that the 'Tractatus
coislinianus' summarizes the contents of the lost second book.

Overview
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The table of contents page of the 'Poetics' found in Modern Library's
'Basic Works of Aristotle' (2001) identifies five basic parts within
it.

Preliminary discourse on tragedy, epic poetry, and comedy as the
chief forms of imitative poetry.
Definition of a tragedy, and the rules for its construction.
Definition and analysis into qualitative parts.
Rules for the construction of a tragedy: Tragic pleasure, or
catharsis experienced by fear and pity should be produced in the
spectator. The characters must be four things: good, appropriate,
realistic, and consistent. Discovery must occur within the plot.
Narratives, stories, structures, and poetics overlap. It is important
for the poet to visualize all of the scenes when creating the plot.
The poet should incorporate complication and dénouement within the
story, as well as combine all of the elements of tragedy. The poet
must express thought through the characters' words and actions, while
paying close attention to diction and how a character's spoken words
express a specific idea. Aristotle believed that all of these
different elements had to be present in order for the poetry to be
well-done.
Possible criticisms of an epic or tragedy and the answers to them.
Tragedy is artistically superior to epic poetry: Tragedy has
everything that the epic has, even the epic meter being admissible.
The reality of presentation is felt in the play as read, as well as in
the play as acted. The tragic imitation requires less time for the
attainment of its end. If it has a more concentrated effect, it is
more pleasurable than one with a large admixture of time to dilute it.
There is less unity in the imitation of the epic poets (a plurality of
actions), and this is proved by the fact that an epic poem can supply
enough material for several tragedies.

Aristotle also draws a famous distinction between the tragic mode of
poetry and the type of history-writing practiced among the Greeks.
Whereas history deals with things that took place in the past, tragedy
concerns itself with what might occur, or could be imagined to happen.
History deals with particulars, whose relation to one another is
marked by contingency, accident, or chance. Contrarily, poetic
narratives are determined objects, unified by a plot whose logic binds
up the constituent elements by necessity and probability. In this
sense, he concluded, such poetry was more philosophical than history
was in so far as it approximates a knowledge of universals.

Synopsis
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Aristotle distinguishes between the genres of "poetry" in three ways:
* Matter
::Language, rhythm, and melody, for Aristotle, make up the matter of
poetic creation. Where the epic poem makes use of language alone, the
playing of the lyre involves rhythm and melody. Some poetic forms
include a blending of all materials; for example, Greek tragic drama
included a singing chorus, and so music and language were all part of
the performance. These points also convey . Recent work, though,
argues that translating 'rhuthmos' here as "rhythm" is absurd: melody
already has its own inherent musical rhythm, and the Greek can mean
what Plato says it means in 'Laws' II, 665a: "(the name of) ordered
body movement," or dance. This correctly conveys what dramatic musical
creation, the topic of the 'Poetics', in ancient Greece had: music,
dance, and language. Also, the musical instrument cited in Ch. 1 is
not the lyre but the 'kithara', which was played in the drama while
the kithara-player was dancing (in the chorus), even if that meant
just walking in an appropriate way. Moreover, epic might have had only
literary exponents, but as Plato's 'Ion' and Aristotle's Ch. 26 of the
'Poetics' help prove, for Plato and Aristotle at least some epic
rhapsodes used all three means of mimesis: language, dance (as a
pantomimic gesture), and music (if only by chanting the words).
* Subjects
::(Also "agents" in some translations.) Aristotle differentiates
between tragedy and comedy throughout the work by distinguishing
between the nature of the human characters that populate either form.
Aristotle finds that tragedy deals with serious, important, and
virtuous people. Comedy, on the other hand, treats of less virtuous
people and focuses on human "weaknesses and foibles". Aristotle
introduces here the influential 'tripartite division of characters':
superior (βελτίονας) to the audience, inferior (χείρονας), or at the
same level (τοιούτους).
* Aristotle, Poetics 1448a,
[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0056%3Asection%3D1448a
English],
[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0055%3Asection%3D1448a
original Greek]
*
* Method
::One may imitate the agents through use of a narrator throughout, or
only occasionally (using direct speech in parts and a narrator in
parts, as Homer does), or only through direct speech (without a
narrator), using actors to speak the lines directly. This latter is
the method of tragedy (and comedy): without the use of any narrator.

Having examined briefly the field of "poetry" in general, Aristotle
proceeds to his definition of tragedy:

Tragedy is a representation of a serious, complete action that has
magnitude, in embellished speech, with each of its elements [used]
separately in the [various] parts [of the play] and [represented] by
people acting and not by narration, accomplished using pity and terror
the catharsis of such emotions.

By "embellished speech", I mean that which has rhythm and melody, i.e.
song. By "with its elements separately", I mean that some [parts of
it] are accomplished only by using spoken verses, and others again by
means of song.

He then identifies the "parts" of tragedy:

* plot ('mythos')
::Refers to the "organization of incidents". It should imitate an
action that evokes pity and fear. The plot involves a change from bad
towards good, or good towards bad. Complex plots have reversals and
recognitions. These and suffering (or violence) evoke the tragic
emotions. The most tragic plot pushes a good character towards
undeserved misfortune because of a mistake ('hamartia'). Plots
revolving around such a mistake are more tragic than plots with two
sides and an opposite outcome for the good and the bad. Violent
situations are most tragic if they are between friends and family.
Threats can be resolved by being done in knowledge, done in ignorance
and then discovered, or almost done in ignorance but discovered at the
last moment. Aristotle judges the last to be the best. This, however,
seems to contradict his statement regarding the most tragic plot.

::Actions should follow logically from the situation created by what
has happened before, and from the character of the agent. This goes
for recognitions and reversals as well, as even surprises are more
satisfying to the audience if they afterwards are seen as a plausible
or necessary consequence.

* character ('ethos')
::Aristotle defines a tragedy as entertaining by satisfying the moral
sense and imitating actions that "excite pity and fear". The success
of a tragedy in calling forth these qualities is revealed through the
moral character of the agents, which is revealed through the actions
and choices of the agents. In a perfect tragedy, the character will
support the plot, which means personal motivations and traits will
somehow connect parts of the cause-and-effect chain of actions
producing pity and fear.
::The main character should be:
::* Good--a character must be between the two extremes of morality,
they must simply be good. A character should not be on either of the
moral extremities. To follow a character of virtue from prosperity to
adversity merely serves to shock the audience; yet to follow them from
adversity to prosperity is a story of triumph that satisfies the moral
sense but ignores the excitement of fear and pity altogether. To
follow a villain from prosperity to adversity will undoubtedly satisfy
the moral sense, but it once again ignores the tragic qualities of
fear and pity. On the other hand, a villain going from adversity to
prosperity possesses no tragic qualities at all, neither satisfying
the moral sense nor exciting fear and pity.
::* Appropriate--if a character is supposed to be wise, it is unlikely
he is young (supposing wisdom is gained with age).
::* Consistent--as the actions of a character should follow the Law of
Probability and Necessity, they must be written to be internally
consistent. When applied, the Law of Probability and Necessity defines
it as necessary for a character to react and as probable for them to
react in a certain way. To be truly realistic, these reactions must be
true and expected of the character. As such, they must be internally
consistent.
::* "consistently inconsistent"--if a character always behaves
foolishly it is strange if he suddenly becomes intelligent. In this
case, it would be good to explain such the cause of such a change;
otherwise, the audience may be confused. If a character changes their
opinion a lot it should be made clear that this is a trait of the
character.
* thought ('dianoia')--spoken (usually) reasoning of human characters
can explain the characters or story background.
* diction ('lexis')--Lexis is better translated, according to some, as
"speech" or "language". Otherwise, the relevant necessary condition
stemming from 'logos' in the definition (language) has no follow-up:
mythos (plot) could be done by dancers or pantomime artists, given
chapters 1, 2, and 4, if the actions are structured (on stage, as
drama was usually done), just like plot for us can be given in film or
in a story-ballet with no words.
::Refers to the quality of speech in tragedy. Speeches should reflect
character: the moral qualities of those on the stage. The expression
of the meaning of the words.
* melody ('melos')--"Melos" can also mean "music-dance", especially
given that its primary meaning in ancient Greek is "limb" (an arm or a
leg). This is arguably more sensible because then Aristotle is
conveying what the chorus actually did.
::The Chorus should be written as one of the actors. As such, It
should be an integral part of the whole: taking a share in the action
and contributing to the unity of the plot. It is a factor in the
pleasure of the drama.
* spectacle ('opsis')
::Refers to the visual apparatus of the play, including set, costumes,
and props (anything you can see). Aristotle calls spectacle the "least
artistic" element of tragedy, and the For example: if the play has
"beautiful" costumes and "bad" acting and "bad" story, there is
"something wrong" with it. Even though that "beauty" may save the play
it is "not a nice thing".

He offers the earliest-surviving explanation for the origins of
tragedy and comedy:

Anyway, arising from an improvisatory beginning (both tragedy and
comedy--tragedy from the leaders of the dithyramb, and comedy from the
leaders of the phallic processions which even now continue as a custom
in many of our cities)...

Influence
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The Arabic version of Aristotle's 'Poetics' that influenced the Middle
Ages was translated from a Greek manuscript dated to some time before
700 AD. This manuscript, translated from Greek to Syriac, is
independent of the currently-accepted 11th-century source designated
'Paris 1741'. The Syriac-language source used for the Arabic
translations departed widely in vocabulary from the original 'Poetics'
and it initiated a misinterpretation of Aristotelian thought that
continued through the Middle Ages.

The scholars who published significant commentaries on Aristotle's
'Poetics' included Avicenna, Al-Farabi, and Averroes. Many of these
interpretations sought to use Aristotelian theory to impose morality
on the Arabic poetic tradition. In particular, Averroes added a moral
dimension to the 'Poetics' by interpreting tragedy as the art of
praise and comedy as the art of blame. Averroes' interpretation of the
'Poetics' was accepted by the West, where it reflected the "prevailing
notions of poetry" the 16th century.

Giorgio Valla's 1498 Latin translation of Aristotle's text (the first
to be published) was included in a collection of various translations.
In 1508, the Aldine Press published the Greek original as part of
another anthology, 'Rhetores graeci'. By the early decades of the
sixteenth century, vernacular versions of Aristotle's 'Poetics'
appeared, culminating in Lodovico Castelvetro's Italian editions of
1570 and 1576. Italian culture produced the great Renaissance
commentators on Aristotle's 'Poetics', and in the baroque period
Emanuele Tesauro, with his 'Cannocchiale aristotelico', re-presented
to the world of post-Galilean physics Aristotle's poetic theories as
the sole key to approaching the human sciences.

Recent scholarship has challenged whether Aristotle focuses on
literary theory per se (given that not one poem exists in the
treatise) or whether he focuses instead on dramatic musical theory
that only has language as one of the elements.

The lost second book of Aristotle's 'Poetics' is a core plot element
in Umberto Eco's novel 'The Name of the Rose'.

Core terms
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* 'Anagnorisis' or "recognition", "identification"
* 'Catharsis' or, variously, "purgation", "purification",
"clarification"
* 'Dianoia' or "thought", "theme"
* 'Ethos' or "character"
* 'Hamartia' or "miscalculation" (understood in Romanticism as "tragic
flaw")
* 'Hubris' or 'Hybris', "pride"
* 'Lexis' or "diction", "speech"
* 'Melos', or "melody"; also "music-dance" (melos meaning primarily
"limb")
* 'Mimesis' or "imitation", "representation", or "expression", given
that, e.g., music is a form of mimesis, and often there is no music in
the real world to be "imitated" or "represented".
* 'Mythos' or "plot", defined in Chapter 6 explicitly as the
"structure of actions".
* 'Nemesis' or, "retribution"
* 'Opsis' or "spectacle"
* 'Peripeteia' or "reversal"

Editions, commentaries, and translations
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* Revised 2nd edition, in two volumes (1812):
[https://archive.org/details/aristotlestreat00twingoog I] &
[https://archive.org/details/aristotlestreat02twingoog II]
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* (posthumous)
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*

Sources
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* Belfiore, Elizabeth, S., 'Tragic Pleasures: Aristotle on Plot and
Emotion'. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP (1992).
* Bremer, J.M., 'Hamartia: Tragic Error in the Poetics of Aristotle
and the Greek Tragedy', Amsterdam 1969
* Butcher, Samuel H., 'Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art', New
York 41911
* Carroll, M., 'Aristotle's Poetics, c. xxv, Ιn the Light of the
Homeric Scholia', Baltimore 1895
* Cave, Terence, 'Recognitions. A Study in Poetics', Oxford 1988
* Carlson, Marvin, 'Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical
Survey from the Greeks to the Present'. Expanded ed. Ithaca and
London: Cornell UP (1993). .
*Destrée, Pierre, "Aristotle on the Power of Music in Tragedy," Greek
& Roman Musical Studies, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 2016
* Dukore, Bernard F., 'Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to
Grotowski'. Florence, KY: Heinle & Heinle (1974).
* Downing, E., "oἷον ψυχή: An Εssay on Aristotle's muthos", 'Classical
Antiquity' 3 (1984) 164-78
* Else, Gerald F., 'Plato and Aristotle on Poetry', Chapel Hill/London
1986
*
*
*
*
* Halliwell, Stephen, 'Aristotle's Poetics', Chapel Hill 1986.
* Halliwell, Stephen, 'The Aesthetics of Mimesis. Ancient Texts and
Modern Problems', Princeton/Oxford 2002.
* Hardison, O. B., Jr., "Averroes", in 'Medieval Literary Criticism:
Translations and Interpretations'. New York: Ungar (1987), 81-88.
* Hiltunen, Ari, 'Aristotle in Hollywood'. Intellect (2001). .
* Ηöffe, O. (ed.), 'Aristoteles: Poetik', (Klassiker auslegen, Band
38) Berlin 2009
* Janko, R., 'Aristotle on Comedy', London 1984
* Jones, John, 'On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy', London 1971
* Lanza, D. (ed.), 'La poetica di Aristotele e la sua storia', Pisa
2002
* Leonhardt, J., 'Phalloslied und Dithyrambos. Aristoteles über den
Ursprung des griechischen Dramas'. Heidelberg 1991
* Lienhard, K., 'Entstehung und Geschichte von Aristoteles 'Poetik,
Zürich 1950
* Lord, C., "Aristotle's History of Poetry", Transactions and
Proceedings of the American Philological Association 104 (1974)
195-228
* Lucas, F. L., 'Tragedy: Serious Drama in Relation to Aristotle's
"Poetics"'. London: Hogarth (1957). New York: Collier. . London:
Chatto.
* Luserke, M. (ed.), 'Die aristotelische Katharsis. Dokumente ihrer
Deutung im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert', Hildesheim/Zürich/N. York 1991
* Morpurgo- Tagliabue, G., 'Linguistica e stilistica di Aristotele',
Rome 1967
* Rorty, Amélie Oksenberg (ed.), 'Essays on Aristotle's Poetics',
Princeton 1992
* Schütrumpf, E., "Traditional Elements in the Concept of Hamartia in
Aristotle's Poetics", 'Harvard Studies in Classical Philology' 92
(1989) 137-56
*Scott, Gregory L., 'Aristotle on Dramatic Musical Composition The
Real Role of Literature, Catharsis, Music and Dance in the Poetics'
(2018),
* Sen, R. K., 'Mimesis', Calcutta: Syamaprasad College, 2001
* Sen, R. K., 'Aesthetic Enjoyment: Its Background in Philosophy and
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* Sifakis, Gr. M., 'Aristotle on the Function of Tragic Poetry',
Heraklion 2001.
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des Aristoteles', Amsterdam 1981
* Sörbom, G., 'Mimesis and Art', Uppsala 1966
* Solmsen, F., "The Origins and Methods of Aristotle's Poetics",
'Classical Quarterly' 29 (1935) 192-201
* Takeda, Arata, 'Die verkannte Tragödie: Theoriebildung und
Wissenswandel zwischen Antike und Neuzeit', Weilerswist: Velbrück,
2025.
* Tsitsiridis, S., "Mimesis and Understanding. An Interpretation of
Aristotle's 'Poetics' 4.1448b4-19", 'Classical Quarterly' 55 (2005)
435-46
* Vahlen, Johannes, 'Beiträge zu Aristoteles' Poetik', Leipzig/Berlin
1914
* Vöhler, M. - Seidensticker B. (edd.), 'Katharsiskonzeptionen vor
Aristoteles: zum kulturellen Hintergrund des Tragödiensatzes', Berlin
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External links
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* librivox.org [http://librivox.org/poetics-by-aristotle/ audio
recording]
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1974/1974-h/1974-h.htm Project
Gutenberg - 'Poetics' (Aristotle)]
*[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0056%3Asection%3D1447a
'Aristotle's Poetics': Perseus Digital Library edition]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110726052929/http://hodoi.fltr.ucl.ac.be/concordances/aristote_poetique/texte.htm
Greek text] from Hodoi elektronikai
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=tqYNAAAAIAAJ Critical edition]
(Oxford Classical Texts) by Ingram Bywater
*[http://nevmenandr.net/poetica/1447a8.php Seven parallel translations
of 'Poetics': Russian, English, French]
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-poe/ Aristotle: 'Poetics'] entry by Joe
Sachs in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
* Notes of Friedrich Sylburg (1536-1596) in a critical edition
(parallel Greek and Latin)
[https://books.google.com/books?id=l2M-AAAAcAAJ available at Google
Books]
* Analysis and discussion in the BBC's
'[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xw210 In Our Time]' series on
Radio 4.

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