query: genre hecuba 
supports: A paradox is a statement that, despite apparently sound reasoning from true premises, leads to a self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion. A paradox involves contradictory yet interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time. Aeschylus (or ; "Aiskhulos" c. 525/524  c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy. Academics' knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater allowing conflict among them; characters previously had interacted only with the chorus. Troy ("Troia" and , "Ilion", or , "Ilios"; and ; Hittite: "Wilusha" or "Truwisha") was a city situated in the far northwest of the region known in late Classical antiquity as Asia Minor, now known as Anatolia in modern Turkey, near (just south of) the southwest mouth of the Dardanelles strait and northwest of Mount Ida. The present-day location is known as Hisarlik. It was the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle, in particular in the "Iliad", one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. Metrical evidence from the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" suggests that the name ("Ilion") formerly began with a digamma: ("Wilion"); this is also supported by the Hittite name for what is thought to be the same city, Wilusa. Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey (Turkish: ), is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Greece to the west; Bulgaria to the northwest; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the south. The Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, which together form the Turkish Straits, divide Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia. Turkey's location has given it geopolitical and strategic importance throughout history. The Odyssey ("Odýsseia", in Classical Attic) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the "Iliad", the other work ascribed to Homer. The "Odyssey" is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature; the "Iliad" is the oldest. Scholars believe the "Odyssey" was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia. Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is part of a person's self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. In this way, cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also of the culturally identical group of members sharing the same cultural identity. Greek mythology is the body of myths and teachings that belong to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to and study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece and its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself. Euripides (or ; ) (c. 480  c. 406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. He is one of the few whose plays have survived, with the others being Aeschylus, Sophocles, and potentially Euphorion. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but according to the "Suda" it was 92 at most. Of these, 18 or 19 have survived more or less complete (there has been debate about his authorship of "Rhesus", largely on stylistic grounds) and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly due to mere chance and partly because his popularity grew as theirs declinedhe became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes and Menander. Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC  AD 17/18), known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. He enjoyed enormous popularity, but, in one of the mysteries of literary history, was sent by Augustus into exile in a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. Ovid himself attributes his exile to "carmen et error", "a poem and a mistake", but his discretion in discussing the causes has resulted in much speculation among scholars. The Peloponnesian War (431404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast of the Peloponnese and attempt to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was soon undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse in Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force, in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from Persia, supported rebellions in Athens' subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens' empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction of Athens' fleet at Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following year. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved, but Sparta refused. Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is a term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwestern Asia. A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. This derives from "sedere", Latin for "to sit". Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is not uncommon, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy. In Greek mythology, Priam ("Príamos") was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Hecuba (also "Hecabe", "Hécube"; "Hekáb") was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy during the Trojan War, with whom she had 19 children. These children included several major characters of Homer's "Iliad" such as the warriors Hector and Paris and the prophetess Cassandra. A Christian (or ) is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. "Christian" derives from the Koine Greek word "Christós" (), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term "mashiach". Digamma, waw, or wau (uppercase: , lowercase: , numeral: ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet. It originally stood for the sound but it has principally remained in use as a Greek numeral for 6. Whereas it was originally called "waw" or "wau", its most common appellation in classical Greek is "digamma"; as a numeral, it was called "epismon" during the Byzantine era and is now known as "stigma" after the Byzantine ligature combining - as . King Priam is an opera by Michael Tippett, to his own libretto. The story is based on Homer's "Iliad", except the birth and childhood of Paris, which are taken from the "Fabulae" of Hyginus. Anatolia (from Greek , '  "east" or "(sun)rise"; in modern ), in geography known as Asia Minor (from '  "small Asia"; in modern ), Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921  26 January 1988) was a Welsh academic, novelist and critic. He was an influential figure within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the mass media and literature are a significant contribution to the Marxist critique of culture and the arts. Some 750,000 copies of his books have sold in UK editions alone and there are many translations available. His work laid the foundations for the field of cultural studies and the cultural materialist approach. Catharsis (from Greek meaning "purification" or "cleansing") is the purification and purgation of emotionsespecially pity and fearthrough art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration. It is a metaphor originally used by Aristotle in the "Poetics," comparing the effects of tragedy on the mind of a spectator to the effect of a cathartic on the body. Homer (, "Hómros") is the name ascribed by the Ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the two epic poems, the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey", the central works of Greek literature. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value. Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Asia Minor. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is an extension of the ancient rites carried out in honor of Dionysus, and it heavily influenced the theatre of Ancient Rome and the Renaissance. Tragic plots were most often based upon myths from the oral traditions of archaic epics. In tragic theatre, however, these narratives were presented by actors. The most acclaimed Greek tragedians are Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The Trojan Women ("Triades"), also known as Troades, is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides. Produced in 415 BC during the Peloponnesian War, it is often considered a commentary on the capture of the Aegean island of Melos and the subsequent slaughter and subjugation of its populace by the Athenians earlier that year "(see History of Milos)". 415 BC was also the year of the scandalous desecration of the "hermai" and the Athenians' second expedition to Sicily, events which may also have influenced the author. In Greek mythology, Laomedon was a Trojan king, son of Ilus, nephew of Ganymede and Assaracus, and father of Priam, Astyoche, Lampus, Hicetaon, Clytius, Cilla, Proclia, Aethilla, Medesicaste, Clytodora, and Hesione. Tithonus is also described by most sources as Laomedon's eldest legitimate son; and most sources omit Ganymedes from the list of Laomedon's children, but indicate him as his uncle instead. Laomedon's possible wives are Placia, Strymo (or Rhoeo) and Leucippe; by the former he begot Tithonus and by the latter King Priam (see John Tzetzes' "Scholia in Lycophronem" 18 (: "Priamus was the son of Leucippe, whereas Tithonus was the son of Rhoeo or Strymo, the daughter of Scamander")). He also had a son named Bucolion by the nymph Calybe, as recounted by Homer in the "Iliad" (6.22). Dictys Cretensis (4.22) added Thymoetes to the list of Laomedon's children. The Iliad ("", in Classical Attic; sometimes referred to as the "Song of Ilion" or "Song of Ilium") is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. Hecuba ( Ancient Greek :  , Hekab ) is a tragedy by Euripides written c. 424 BC. It takes place after the Trojan War , but before the Greeks have departed Troy ( roughly the same time as The Trojan Women , another play by Euripides ) . The central figure is Hecuba , wife of King Priam , formerly Queen of the now - fallen city . It depicts Hecuba 's grief over the death of her daughter Polyxena , and the revenge she takes for the murder of her youngest son Polydorus . Sophocles ("Sophokls", ; 497/6  winter 406/5 BC) is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote 120 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form: "Ajax", "Antigone", "The Women of Trachis", "Oedipus the King", "Electra", "Philoctetes" and "Oedipus at Colonus". For almost 50 years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens that took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in 30 competitions, won 18, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won 5 competitions. Tragedy (from the , "tragidia") is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term "tragedy" often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilisation. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it. Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: , "drama"), which is derived from "to do" (Classical Greek: , "drao"). 
  The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. They are symbols of the ancient Greek Muses, Thalia, and Melpomene. Thalia was the Muse of comedy (the laughing face), while Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy (the weeping face). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's "Poetics" (c. 335 BCE)the earliest work of dramatic theory. Wilusa (Hittite: "Wi-lu-ša") <English pronunciation: wi-lu-sha> was a city of the late Bronze Age Assuwa confederation of western Anatolia. Greek literature refers to writings composed in areas of Greek influence throughout the period in which the Greek-speaking people have existed. In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's "Iliad". The "Iliad" relates four days in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the "Odyssey" describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. In Greek mythology, Hector ("Hektr") was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, who was a descendant of Dardanus and Tros, the founder of Troy, he was a prince of the royal house and the heir apparent to his father's throne. He was married to Andromache, with whom he had an infant son, Scamandrius (whom the people of Troy called Astyanax). He acted as leader of the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, "killing 31,000 Greek fighters", offers Hyginus. During the European Middle Ages, Hector figures as one of the Nine Worthies noted by Jacques de Longuyon, known not only for his courage but also for his noble and courtly nature. Indeed, Homer places Hector as peace-loving, thoughtful as well as bold, a good son, husband and father, and without darker motives. James Redfield writes of Hector as a "martyr to loyalties, a witness to the things of this world, a hero ready to die for the precious imperfections of ordinary life." Sparta (Doric Greek: ; Attic Greek: ) was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece. In antiquity the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece. In Greek mythology, Menelaus ("Menelaos", from < · vigor, rage, power + · people, ""wrath of the people"") was a king of Mycenaean (pre-Dorian) Sparta, the husband of Helen of Troy, and a central figure in the Trojan War. He was the son of Atreus and Aerope, brother of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and, according to the "Iliad", leader of the Spartan contingent of the Greek army during the War. Prominent in both the "Iliad" and "Odyssey", Menelaus was also popular in Greek vase painting and Greek tragedy, the latter more as a hero of the Trojan War than as a member of the doomed House of Atreus. The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece (508322 BC) was the major urban center of the notable polis (city-state) of the same name, located in Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Isagoras. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions remained in place for 180 years, until 322 BC (aftermath of Lamian War). The peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as the Age of Pericles. A herma (pl. "hermai"), commonly in English herm, is a sculpture with a head, and perhaps a torso, above a plain, usually squared lower section, on which male genitals may also be carved at the appropriate height. The form originated in Ancient Greece, and was adopted by the Romans, and revived at the Renaissance in the form of term figures and Atlantes. The Epic Cycle ("Epikos Kyklos") was a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems that related the story of the Trojan War that includes the "Cypria", the "Aethiopis", the so-called "Little Iliad", the "Iliupersis", the "Nostoi", and the "Telegony". Scholars sometimes include the two Homeric epics, the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey", among the poems of the Epic Cycle, but the term is more often used to specify the non-Homeric poems as distinct from the Homeric ones. The Suda or Souda is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often derived from medieval Christian compilers. The derivation is probably from the Byzantine Greek word "souda", meaning "fortress" or "stronghold," with the alternate name, "Suidas", stemming from an error made by Eustathius, who mistook the title for the author's name. Menander ("Menandros"; c. 342/41  c. 290 BC) was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His record at the City Dionysia is unknown but may well have been similarly spectacular. In Greek mythology, Polyxena (Greek: ) was the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen, Hecuba. Publius Vergilius Maro (traditional dates October 15, 70 BC  September 21, 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three acclaimed works of Latin literature, the "Eclogues" (or "Bucolics"), the "Georgics", and the epic "Aeneid". A number of minor poems, collected in the "Appendix Vergiliana", are sometimes attributed to him. Odysseus, also known by the Latin name Ulysses, was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the "Odyssey". Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's "Iliad" and other works in that same epic cycle. Demosthenes ("Dmosthéns" 384  12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by studying the speeches of previous great orators. He delivered his first judicial speeches at the age of 20, in which he argued effectively to gain from his guardians what was left of his inheritance. For a time, Demosthenes made his living as a professional speech-writer (logographer) and a lawyer, writing speeches for use in private legal suits. Culture can be defined in numerous ways. In the words of anthropologist E.B. Tylor, it is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." Alternatively, in a contemporary variant, "Culture is defined as a social domain that emphasizes the practices, discourses and material expressions, which, over time, express the continuities and discontinuities of social meaning of a life held in common."
candidates: action art bard christian christianity classical period comedy country cultural history cultural studies culture debate democracy drama dramatic education encyclopedia epic epic poem fiction genre geography greek mythology greek tragedy history jesus christ letter literature march martyr mass military opera paradox party poet politics religion renaissance society song tragedy urban war welsh western
answer: greek tragedy