7
Epic poetry agreed with tragedy only in so far as it was a metrical representation of heroic action, but inasmuch as it has a single metre and is narrative in that respect they are different.
8
And then as regards length, tragedy tends to fall within a single revolution of the sun or slightly to exceed that, whereas epic is unlimited in point of time;
9
and that is another difference, although originally the practice was the same in tragedy as in epic poetry.
10
The constituent parts are some of them the same and some peculiar to tragedy.
11
Consequently any one who knows about tragedy, good and bad, knows about epics too, since tragedy has all the elements of epic poetry, though the elements of tragedy are not all present in the epic.
1
With the representation of life in hexameter versei.e., epic poetry. and with comedy we will deal later. We must now treat of tragedy after first gathering up the definition of its nature which results from what we have said already.
2
Tragedy is, then, a representation of an actionMargoliouth’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.) that is heroic and complete and of a certain magnitude—by means of language enriched with all kinds of ornament, each used separately in the different parts of the play: it represents men in action and does not use narrative, and through pity and fear it effects relief to these and similar emotions.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.
3
By language enriched I mean that which has rhythm and tune, i.e., song,
4
and by the kinds separately I mean that some effects are produced by verse alone and some again by song.
