Antigone

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first song of the Chorus, sung as they entered from the sides of the Orchestra and took their stand round the altar in the centre, known as the thymele, was called the Parodos; that portion of the dialogue which intervened between the Parodos and the next whole Chorus was called the first Epeisodion. This was succeeded by the first Stasimon, so named because sung by the Chorus while standing round the thymele. Epeisodia and Stasima thus succeeded each other till the concluding portion of the play began, and that was called the Exodus because at its close the Chorus and the actors left the stage. Sometimes the Chorus held musical dialogue with one of the chief actors, and these dialogues had the name of Kommoi, an excellent illustration of which we find in this play, lines 808-883, or the Chorus divided itself in alternate musical discourse. As a rule there was no change of scene, the catastrophe not taking place on the stage but being related by a messenger. In the Antigone the scene ...

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at least must be paid for defying the law of man that a higher law may be obeyed.

Not less important were the aesthetic and moral functions of tragedy, functions which in the hands of Sophocles particularly it was most punctiliously regarded. Its aim was, in Aristotle's expression, "to effect through fear and pity the purgation of those passions." In other words, it was to excite legitimately those passions, and by legitimately exciting them to relieve and purify them. For this reason the hero or heroine of a tragedy must not be a perfectly bad or a perfectly good person, because if perfectly bad his or her fall excited neither pity nor fear, if perfectly good, mere disgust: ...

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