Tragedy

(traj'e-de.) [Gr. tragodia; from tragos, a goat, and ode, a song.] Adrama representing some grand and serious action, and generally terminating in some fatal event. The name is supposed to have originated in the custom of leading about a goat, in proce ion, at the festival of Bacchus; in whose honor these choral odes, which formed the groundwork of Attic tragedy, were sung, or from a goat being the prize. [s. 903]