1 Probably about 465 B.C.
2 In the fifth century dramatists submitted their plays to the archon in charge of the festival at which they wished them to be performed. He selected the number required by the particular festival, and to the poets thus selected "granted a chorus," i.e., provided a choregus who paid the expenses of the chorus. The earlier "volunteers" had themselves paid for and produced their plays.
3 Epicharmus and Phormis, being both early Sicilian "comedians", are appropriate here. Either part of a sentence is lost or an explanatory note has got into the text.
4 Fragments of his comedies survive, dating about the middle of the fifth century B.C.
5 i.e., epic poetry.
6 Margoliouth's phrase "a chapter of life," illuminates the meaning, since πρᾶξις includes what the hero does and what happens to him. (Cf. Aristot. Poet. 2.1 and note.)
7 The sense of "the pity of it "and fear lest such disasters might befall ourselves are not the only emotions which tragedy releases, but Aristotle specifies them as the most characteristic. For κάθαρσις, see Introduction.
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