Dal dramma unico al quarto dramma. Considerazioni sui rapporti fra tragedia e dramma satiresco prima di Eschilo

The existing sources on the oldest forms of dramatic representation other than comedy have generally been read as if they all referred to tragedy alone. This reading appears to be dictated by a conditioned reflex which relegates satyr drama to a subordinate position; moreover, it does not take proper account either of the etymology of a word such as τραγῳδία (and of the others belonging to the same semantic field) or of the fact that among the oldest occurrences of these terms (in Aristophanes) some might well be taken to designate that particular unity of theatrical form constituted by the combination of tragedy and satyr drama. Furthermore, a passage from the Frogs (vv. 1004-1005), an anecdote on Thespis (Plu. Sol. 29.6-7) and the numerical data referring to Pratina’s theatrical production lead us to think that ‘tragedy’ originally contained comic elements. All these clues are totally compatible with a reading of the famous chapter 4 of Aristotle’s Poetics that places the satyrikòn at the origins of tragedy. Only at a later stage would the satyrikòn break down into tragedy and satyr drama, although these two theatrical entities always remained connected to each other as two complementary manifestations of the same dramatic art. This reconstruction makes it easier to understand why a fourth drama without satyrs could sometimes be found in place of the satyr play at the end of the tetralogy.