Hanser Literaturverlage

2500 years ago, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides created the theatrical language of Tragedy as a means of describing the conflicts of their time. It is a language that to this day has not lost its relevance.

An essential element in Attic tragedy is terror, which, according to tradition, is counterbalanced by mercy, leading to the effect of catharsis in the audience. With the onset of modernity, art has cast off such moral shackles, and it is in this light that Karl Heinz Bohrer focuses his interpretation of the Greek tragedies on the pathos of terror: on the emotional reaction of the audience as an aesthetic experience in its own right. With this perspective in mind, the connections between ancient Athens and the modern world become clearly apparent. It is due to the aesthetics of horror that the Attic tragedies have not relinquished their hold on us to this day.

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