User talk:Dr.hsmith

The dangers of an unrefereed encyclopedia--this entry on protagonist, rife with downright errors and distortions. Think of those who performed the speaking roles in tragedy as a company of players. The principle actor was the protagonist--he selected his deuteragonist and tritagonist and paid for them out of his salary. Though Aristotle didn't use the term, most think he did. Had he done so, he would have been restricting the term to performers not to characters. Nor did the "protagonist" always take the title role in individual works. It's unlikely, for instance, that the principal actor for THE ORESTEIA took on AGAMEMNON and willingly gave up the juicy part of Clytemnestra just so that he could have the undemanding, and brief, role of the king. Other examples come readily to mind--PHILOCTETES (Sophocles) and HIPPOLYTUS (Euripides). More likely than not, the principle actor took several roles in each work of a tetralogy. He balanced distribution of parts. Of course, he did so with some healthy self-interest. After all, the prizes at the end of a dramatic festival went to the best of the protagonists--that is, to the actor who performed his various parts most satisfactorily in the eyes of the judges for that year. But he had to have realized that he needed to marshal all talents of all his fellow performers.

The entire notion of "protagonist as hero" and the concept, late as is, of antagonist--a neologism with no applicability to Greek theater--fit exactly Aristotle's definition of HAMARTIA, an error of judgment/a missing the mark.

This misunderstanding leads to other untenable assertions--the "hero," for instance, has the "peripiteia" because of his/her "hamartia." Consider ANTIGONE. The reversal is Creon's. It comes about because of his "error"--he misjudges what is most important, God's or Man's law. Similarly in HIPPOLYTUS where the peripity is Theseus' as is also the hamartia. In neither of these cases is the "hero," the title character, at the center of the play.

I get so angry about perpetuating misunderstandings by those who have never fought to understand that I nearly burst at my ancient seams. Dr.hsmith (talk) 00:41, 1 January 2009 (UTC)