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The etymology of the word "tragedy" is "tragos"+"ode", which means the hymn of goats.Tragoi (the goats) were the priests of god Dionyssos.
The parts of the ancient tragedy are :
a. The epic
b. The lyric
c. The dancing
The formation of tragedy was the synthesis of the above elements.The epic and lyric poetry were developped in many nations across the ancient world.
a. In Greece the epic poetry reached its peak with Homer and his classic heroic works,Ilias and Odyssey and Hessiodos with his didactic work,"Theogonia".
b. As far as lyric is concerned there are four categories: a) elegiac in ionian dialect, a) iambic in ionian dialect, c) melic in aeolic dialect and d) choric in dorian dialect.
A special kind of lyric poetry is choric poetry. A kind of choric poetry is Dithyrambous.
Dithyrambous is an hymn to god Dionyssos, a choric song accompanied by flute. The worship of Dionyssos was characterised by many eastern elements and influences from Thrace. As the religion was descending South, some elements of mysticism and orphism are being observed in it.
As part of the choric poetry Dithyrambous had a chorus. The members of the chorus were disguised in animals and they were called Satyrs. The Satyrs were deamons of the woods and at first they had no relation to Dionyssos. But as his religion was expanding in the South, they attached to him.
It is most possible that this meeting of the northern dionyssiac religion with the arcadian Satyrs took place in Peloponnese.
During the centuries the poets were composing each year dithyrambous for the dionyssiac worship. In the middle of 6th century BC a poet had the inspiration to insert into dithyrambous some verses in another meter, without melody, suitable for recitation. Thus the actor was replying to the chorus and the plot was continuing.(The word "hypocrit" derives from the verb apocrinomai", which means "to reply". In other words the Hypocrit=actor was someone who was replying to the chorus.)In that way the lyric and epic elements came together with the dancing movements of the chorus and ancient drama got born in the form of tragedy(solemn dithyrambous), comedy and satyric drama (scoptic dithyrambous)