oa O drama grego: paradigma ou catarse?

This paper discusses several texts concerning the effect of Greek drama on the audience. Starting wtih the ones that insist on the dangers of the behaviour of the heroes being accepted as a paradigm, such as the agon or Aristophanes’ Frogs and the condemnation of drama in Plato’s dialogues (mostly in the Republic and the Laws), it proceeds to examinate the meaning of katharsis and hamartia in Aristotle’s Poetics and the various interpretations these concepts have been subjected to.