[stylist] sunday word: hamartia

[Donna Hill]

Hi Vejas,
Great word. I'm copying some more information about it from About.com and
Wikipedia.
Donna

Hamartia
By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide
Definition: Hamartia is a concept used by Aristotle to describe tragedy.
Hamartia leads to the fall of a noble man caused by some excess or mistake
in behavior, not because of a willful violation of the gods' laws. Hamartia
is related to hubris, which was also more an action than attitude. 

Wikipedia
 History of hamartia
Aristotle first introduced hamartia in his book Poetics. However through the
years the word has changed meanings. Many scholars have argued that the
meaning of the word that was given in Aristotle's book is not really the
correct meaning, and that there is a deeper meaning behind the word. In the
article "Tragic Error in the Poetics of Aristotle," the scholar J.M. Bremer
first explained the general argument of the poetics and, in particular, the
immediate context of the term. He then traces the semasiological history of
the hamart-group of the words from Homer (who also tried to determine the
meaning behind the word) and Aristotle, concluding that of the three
possible meanings of hamartia (missing, error, offence), the Stagirite uses
the second in our passage of Poetics. It is, then a "tragic error", i.e. a
wrong action committed in ignorance of its nature, effect, etc., which is
the starting point of a causally connected train of events ending in
disaster. Today the word and its meaning is still up in the air; even so the
word is still being used in discussion of many plays today, such as Hamlet
and Oedipus Rex.
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of vejas
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 12:41 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] sunday word: hamartia

hamartia
huh-mar-sha
(in Greek tragedy)
a tragic flaw which leads to a hero's downfall.

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