How Canonization Transformed Greek Tragedy

Résumé En

Out of the hundreds of tragedies that were performed in Athens in the 5th century BCE, by dozens of playwrights, only 32 complete ones have been preserved for us, by three playwrights only. How was this canon created?An intuitive answer to this question could be: let us just look at how Greek tragedies were performed in the classical period. For in many ways the tragic festivals in Athens during the classical period might easily be seen as an official canonization mechanism from the start: in the festival of the Great Dionysia, for instance, there was an official contest going on, with three poets competing against each other, the three poets were ranked by a jury, and a prize was given to the first one. One could be tempted to think that those successive competitions were eventually able to produce a canon of tragedies, and even our canon of tragedies. Things are more complicated, however.We will argue here first that ranking and awarding a prize did not mean that a proper canon was being built. It means only that a selection was being made, and selection is not enough to produce a canon. Memory is needed too, that is tradition. The selecting process must be cumulative with time: only then can a canon be produced. We will then try to understand how decisive was the choice of tragedies made around the 2nd century CE, and what influence it exerted on our modern conception of tragedy.