1 The names indicate types. This is obvious, as he says, in Comedy and is also true of Greek Tragedy, which, although it deals with traditional heroes regarded as "real people," yet keeps to a few stories in which each character has become a type. In Chapter 17. the dramatist is recommended to sketch first his outline plot, making it clear and coherent, before he puts in the names.
2 Aristophanes of course did write about individuals. But Aristotle is thinking of the New Comedy, where the names of the characters were invented by the author and there was no reference to real people.
3 The name, apparently, of an imaginary hero. The word might be Ἄνθος, but "The Flower" is an unlikely title for a Greek tragedy.
4 The reason why Greek tragedy dealt only with a few familiar themes is to be found of course in its religious origin. It was the function of tragedy to interpret and embroider myths. Aristotle never gives this reason, but offers instead tbe unconvincing explanation that tragedians adhered to certain "real" stories to gain verisimilitude—and yet he has to admit that, since to many of the auditors these stories were unfamiliar and none the less attractive, dramatists might just as well invent new themes.
5 This term is defined in the next chapter. It seems odd to use it before its meaning is explained. Perhaps we should read ἄλλων(Tyrwhitt)and translate "of all plots."
6 Or "logic." He means the chain of cause and effect, wherein each incident is the result of what has gone before. See the end of the next chapter.
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