Aristotle, Actors, and Tragic Endings: A Counter-Response to Johanna Hanink

In "Tragedy as 'An Augury of a Happy Life'" (Arethusa 41), I hypothesized that Aristotle's preference for sad over happy endings in tragedy might tell us more about the performance practices of fourth-century actors than about the tenor of fifth-century tragedy. In Arethusa 44, Johanna Hanink, while accepting the main thrust of the argument, disputed four of its "single points." This article addresses each of her concerns and offers additional evidence for the likelihood that Aristotle was misled about the nature of fifth-century tragedy by the universalizing emotionality of the professional actors of his time.