La volonté de savoir dans la tragédie Grecque : culte aux dieux de la cité et promotion de la démocratie athénienne

Abstract

This work is entitled the will to know in the Greek tragedy: cult to the gods of the city and promotion of the Athenian democracy. Its aim is to demonstrate on the basis of the analysis of Plato and Aristotles that tragedy far from being considered as a mere entertainment or a system of thought on the tragic genre in the opinion of philosophers such as Shelling. This was rather an object of sacrifice to the protectors gods of the land and a school of the attic democracy. In other words all of the rules related to the application (enforcement) of democracy were taught to citizen through the books of Aechylus, Sophocles and Euripides who were represented during the great religious celebrations as that Panatheneae and the Dionysia in the Vth (5th) century b. JC. Focusing mainly on the way this literary form has worked out the worship of the godfathering divinities and the reinforcement of democratic principles, ours concerns led to the formulation of the problem of the function of the Athenian literature. From there, we drawn our working statement claiming that the genre was viewed as a part and parcel of the democratic system. About the method, it was imperative to lean on the poetic of Aristotle’s tragedy which theorized the greek tragic genre by emphazing on his power over the receiver and its impact onthe society. This approach develops in there steps. Aristotle holds it that tragedy originates from the concurrent attendance of the bursting up of the attic democracy and the influence of religion thanks to the dityramb. Later on Aristotle mentions the object of the genre through the study of six generic criteria (fable, character, thought, language, public representation, song). Finally the theorician demonstrate the purpose of the tragic masterpieces in the society through catharsis. The relation between the Athenian city and this generic system will be examined using thirty-two books of the corpus. The interest of this analysis lies in the study of the fundamentals of the political culture and the enforcement of the Athenian democracy in the light of the works of tragedy. As a result, we notice that being born In particular context, tragedy was conceived as a politico-religious institution with a didactic purpose. It's is obvious that this form of literature was inspired and represented the social reality of the city. Its sacred character is derived from the fact that the representations took place in the Theatre of Dionysus, in specific periods of the Athenian life. Furthermore, its cultural nature was due to the description of the ritual practices of a pious city. Three rites are permanently performed: prayer, libation and sacrifices. Moreover two criteria justify the place of tragedy in the exercise of democracy. The first one is the participation of citizens to gatherings and the promotion to elective positions. The individual has a public freedom exercised through the "agõn" and the "election" to a freedom in speech and action. The other one is the responsibility of the people who is both judge and sovereign in the city. They now vote laws, decide by decree and censure the magistrates. However it's is relevant to observe that the dysfunction of the democracy as demagogy, the ignorance of the people and the fraud of the vote casts. To end up, the construction of ideology goes through the promotion of this regime wherein people have to look for well-being. Tragedy sought happiness and the flourishing of the political community. For Aristotle, this literary form was the most successful poetic genre compared with the epic genre, as democracy was thought to be the best political regime. This clairly explains the shortened life of the Athenian democracy which led to the disappearance of the greek tragedy.