TRAGEDY

(Gr. rftii) of, a goat, and (oi)n, a song.) A species of drama, in which the diction is elevated and the catastrophe melancholy. The name is usually derived from the ancient Greek custom of leading about a goat in i at the festivals of Bacchus in whose honour those choral odes were sung which were the groundwork of the Attic tragedy. Some recent writers, however, have given tplanatJon of the word Tpdyos, considering it an ancient Gn and translating it "melancholy," or "lament Mkama. TI!A<;i [s. 1273]