Humanties

Answer 1:

        The main definition of the word "tragedy" is "an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime or natural catastrophe." Even in this brief description, we can see how much the definition of a tragedy has changed over the past two millennia, mainly with the inclusion of the words "accident" and "natural" catastrophe. Aristotle's third point of tragedy states that "the hero (of the tragedy) is partly responsible for his own downfall." To the Greeks, "tragedy" was a literary term describing a story where the hero, who was a noble, fell from glory and was cast out, through some fault of his own. Now, the modern term "tragedy" is used widely outside of literature to describe circumstances that are no one's fault, but result in disaster, and usually happen to people of classes far lower than nobility. The reason nobility was required for heroes of Greek tragedies was so the hero would have a long way to fall, but now, it is simply required that the recipient of a tragedy have something to lose, whether it be a life or a job or something that is seemingly even more mundane, but matters a great deal to the person who lost it.

               So, which is better? I would contend that the modern usage of the term "tragedy" is better than the Greek usage because it acknowledges the suffering of the average man. For instance, when a rich man loses all of his money and is forced into poverty, it is no more tragic than a poor man losing everything and being forced to live on the street. Both men suffer a massive loss that they may never recover from, but the poor man's loss is still valued.

Answer 2:

Merriam- Webster defines tragedy as a very sad, unfortunate, or upsetting situation: something that causes strong feelings of sadness or regret. The Greeks had a very different view of the meaning. The Greeks saw into every situation differently. They based the significance of a tragedy based on the gravity of the event. They greater the hero the more tragic the event became and vice versa. In today’s society, people see every bad event as a tragedy. A minor accident or even as simple as failing a class. For example, if a person were to drown in a pool, people would say that it was a tragedy. The Greeks would not think it so. They would say it was merely an accident. In retrospect, if the person drowned while saving an infant in the middle of winter and in a frozen pool, that might be considered a tragedy by the Greeks.

            It is my opinion that we as a society, have lowered our standards in our ways of thinking and believe the Greeks had a richer understanding of the definition of tragedy. When compared to a Christin way of thinking though, the Bible teaches that tragedy is not the same as Greek beliefs. Although the situations may be the same in both, our God is a loving God, and does not seek to punish us.  We as humans will sin which in turn leads to consequence but none of which God has caused. Fortunately, we know salvation through Jesus’s death and resurrection and the only tragedy would be not knowing Him.