The Study On The Relation Between Ancient Greek Tragedy And Religion

The ancient Greek tragedy was closely link to the religion, it was derived from the worship of Dionysus, and ended with the decline of the Greek religion. The academe didn't pay enough attentions to this issue, and many partial judgments affect our understanding of ancient Greek tragedy, the question of how to cognize the ancient Greek tragedy and religion is still not solved. This dissertation takes advantage of the research achievement in the religion and anthropology fields and analyzes these above issues deeply through the ancient Greek tragedy works.This dissertation starts with the analysis of the religious backgrounds of ancient Greek tragedy by studying the characters and the evolution of the ancient Greek religion, and traces the origin of the ancient Greek tragedy back to the worship of Dionysus. The bacchanal doxology is the rudiment of the ancient Greek tragedy, which endows the tragedy with the abundant religious meanings. The tragedy evolved from the bacchanal doxology and some mature forms come into being. The works of the first Three in the ancient Greek tragedy account for this question perfectly. Through studying the text of the tragedy, the author expounds the religious meanings of the tragedy. The religious meaning was weakened step by step in the works of Euripides, the Bacchus was evicted from the arena of the tragedy, and the tragedy was gone for ever with the Bacchus.The first chapter analyzes the religious backgrounds under which the ancient Greek tragedy developed, which included the citizen religion and the hero worship. The citizen religion created the possibility for the ancient Greek tragedy in the institution, the hero worship provided plenty of mythological materials. The evolutions of the Olympic gods testified that the citizen religion didn't possess the character of worship. The Olympic gods became one kind of artistic images that had no religion meanings of primitive worship after the shape of the Homer and Hesiod.The second chapter reviews the worship of Dionysus and the religious meanings of the tragedy. The tragedy is developed form the bacchanal doxology as one part of the fete ceremony of Dionysus. This chapter demonstrates the course of the ancient Greek tragedy developed and its religious meanings.The third chapter analysis the works of three most famous writers in the ancient Greek tragedy. The author set forth and justified the main viewpoint of this dissertation: the tragedy changed in the inditement of Euripides, the religious content weakened more and more, and the mundane character went upon the stage of the tragedy, the tragedy was becoming mundane.The last chapter summarized the question of the decline of the tragedy. The author analyzed the origin of philosophy form the religion firstly, and interpreted the division between the religion and the philosophy and its implications. The reason of the philosophy is one revolt to the religion, and the rise of the philosophy resulted in the decline of the religion. The invasion of the philosophy made the religion evicted form the tragedy, and the tragedy can't but go to the decline without the religion foundation.