metre– The measured arrangement of words in poetry, as by accentual rhythm, syllabic quantity, or the number of syllables in a line.
melody– The Greeks sometimes used musical accompaniment. Aristotle said the music (melody) has to blend in with the play appropriately. Spectacle refers to the staging of the play. Again, as with melody, the spectacle should be appropriate to the theme of the play.
mise en scene– the sets, costumes, make-up and other elements that depict the play.
mimesis– an imitation of an act, All poetry, Aristotle argues, is imitation or mimesis. Aristotle imagines that poetry springs from a basic human delight in mimicry. Humans learn through imitating and take pleasure in looking at imitations of the perceived world. The mimetic dimension of the poetic arts is, in Aristotle, always representational; he does not seem to recognize anything like the twentieth-century concept of “abstract” art.
stasimon– a choral ode, especially in tragedy, divided into strophe and antistrophe:
catharsis– purging or purification of emotions through the evocation of pity and fear, as in tragedy. Aristotle describes catharsis as the purging of the emotions of pity and fear that are aroused in the viewer of a tragedy. Debate continues about what Aristotle actually means by catharsis, but the concept is linked to the positive social function of tragedy.
hubris– excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.
pathos– the quality or power in an actual life experience or in literature, music, speech, or other forms of expression, of evoking a feeling of pity or compassion.
hamartia– a tragic flaw, hamartia has a complex meaning which includes “sin,” “error,” “trespass,” and “missing the mark” (as in archery–missing the bull’s-eye). The “mistake” of the hero has an integral place in the plot of the tragedy. The logic of the hero’s descent into misfortune is determined by the nature of his or her particular kind of hamartia.
evocation-an act or instance of evoking; a calling forth: the evocation of old memories.