# What four kinds of tragedy does Poetics XVIII (Butcher) list, how is each defined, and what does the text advise about combining them?

- id: art_01M5MVPGJXFRE8FNN7H9JZ5F49
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- updated: 2026-10-23T17:07:22.327Z
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Butcher's XVIII names four kinds of tragedy: Complex (entirely Reversal of the Situation and Recognition), Pathetic (motive is passion), Ethical (motives are ethical) and Simple (with a bracketed clause excluding the spectacular element), each with play-name examples. The advice is to combine all poetic elements, or the greatest number and the most important. The kinds are defined by different criteria (structural devices, motive, and for the fourth a bracketed note), and in XXIV the same labels are applied to epic in pairs (the Iliad 'simple' and 'pathetic', the Odyssey 'complex' and 'ethical'), so they are not mutually exclusive tags.

Butcher's XVIII names four kinds of tragedy: Complex (entirely Reversal of the Situation and Recognition), Pathetic (motive is passion), Ethical (motives are ethical) and Simple (with a bracketed clause excluding the spectacular element), each with play-name examples. The advice is to combine all poetic elements, or the greatest number and the most important. The kinds are defined by different criteria (structural devices, motive, and for the fourth a bracketed note), and in XXIV the same labels are applied to epic in pairs (the Iliad 'simple' and 'pathetic', the Odyssey 'complex' and 'ethical'), so they are not mutually exclusive tags.

Curator qualifications: Four kinds; fourth rests on an unexplained angle-bracket supplement.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1974/pg1974.txt",
      "note": "candidate evidence excerpts"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Butcher's XVIII names four kinds of tragedy: Complex (entirely Reversal of the Situation and Recognition), Pathetic (motive is passion), Ethical (motives are ethical) and Simple (with a bracketed clause excluding the spectacular element), each with play-name examples. The advice is to combine all poetic elements, or the greatest number and the most important. The kinds are defined by different criteria (structural devices, motive, and for the fourth a bracketed note), and in XXIV the same labels are applied to epic in pairs (the Iliad 'simple' and 'pathetic', the Odyssey 'complex' and 'ethical'), so they are not mutually exclusive tags. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts · source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1974/pg1974.txt

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- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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