In classical tragedies, the catastasis (pl. ''catastases'') is the third part of an ancient

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

, in which the intrigue or action that was initiated in the epitasis, is supported and heightened, until ready to be unravelled in the catastrophe. It also refers to the

climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

of a drama. In

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate par ...

, the catastasis is that part of a speech, usually the exordium, in which the orator sets forth the subject matter to be discussed. The term is not a classical one; it was invented by

Scaliger The Della Scala family, whose members were known as Scaligeri () or Scaligers (; from the Latinized ''de Scalis''), was the ruling family of Verona and mainland Veneto (except for Venice) from 1262 to 1387, for a total of 125 years. History Wh ...

in his ''Poetics'' (published posthumously in 1561). It "is more or less equivalent to the ''summa epitasis'' of Donatus and Latomus and to what Willichius sometimes called the ''extrema epitasis''," and was first used in 1616 in England.Frank N. Magill, ''Critical Survey of Literary Theory: Authors, A-Sw'' (Salem Press, 1987: ), p. 1284.

References

{{Narrative Ancient Greek theatre Drama

See also

References