Goat Song

I've been amused with this assumption that our word "tragedy" comes from a Greek term meaning "goat song." It appears as though Greek theater stemmed from the rites of Dionysus, and that there was some relevance to them concerning goats. Comedy has its own funny associations with goats since our word "satire" implies Greek satyrs, those things that were half man and half goat. Apparently satyrs were believed to mock things and so their name became associated with satyrical plays.

I would imagine that a goat singing would sound pretty terrible, and might itself be reasonably considered a tragedy. At any rate, it was my amusement with the term, and with the image of a goat singing some tragic thing that resulted in this. The women in back are the Greek chorus. The spotlight suggests a play. As for the skull, since people are always dying in Greek tragedies, it seemed an appropriate prop.

 

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