Show A yi ayi A THE RD RO MANCE fIANCE OF WORDS TRAGEDY IS COVEny of the fact that athe DISCOVERY the word tragedy la Is a compound of two greek words meaning goat and song and that a literal translation of thle the original term would be a song of the goat throws little light upon the modern modem use ot of the word until one examines the custom in vogue ue in ancient greece particularly in connection with the production of tragedies alere though we find that the goat played 0 a central role in these entertainments not only was one of the animals offered as a prize for the best performance by the actors but because 5 the goat Is very partial to eating grapevines grape vines and therefore tin an enemy of bacchus the pagan god of wine in whose honor the festivals were e held beld one of them vias as sacrificed tit at each production of a tragedy further to carry out the simile the actors were dressed for the most part in goat skins because many of them P posed ased as martyrs a clist custom Oln from which we obtain our word satirical the singing of a solemn melancholic s song ong was the signal tor for the sacrifice of the goat and it Is because of this connection that we apply the word It tragedy raged y 11 to something which Is extremely est remely sad whether on the stage or in everyday life copyright 4 |