Fun etymologies Thursday
2. I’ve heard this etymology contested before. What does superfluidity have to say about it?
I think it’s pretty clear that the Greek word tragoidia comes from elements meaning “goat” and “song” but there is endless debate about why it should mean that.
Tragedians would typically submit three tragedies and one satyr play for competition. We seem to have only one example of a satyr play (the Cyclops of Euripides) but Aristotle tells us that tragedy developed out of the satyr play, and was slow to become serious in tone. Some scholars have thought that the precursor to tragedy was performed by singers dressed as “goat-like” satyrs, who were associated with Dionysus, but in all the depictions they seem to be more like horses. It isn’t even clear that Aristotle’s analysis is correct, but he has the advantage of being much closer in time and having access to many, many more plays than we do.
A third-century inscription tells us that Thespis (said to be the first dramatist and the namesake of all thespians) performed a play in 534 and won a goat as a prize. Some scholars have suggested that tragedy originated out of songs performed at goat sacrifices.
The Greeks were very fond of making up elaborate stories about the origins of things, and their etymologies are dubious or ridiculous most of the time. It is extremely interesting to me however that an Athenian word and an Athenian institution such as tragedy, which was developed relatively late, has such an obscure origin. It doesn’t even seem clear how Dionysus fits into the scheme at all, even though it is generally agreed that he was closely associated with it at some point. The Athenians themselves lamented that tragedy had “nothing to do with Dionysus” anymore.
