# Why does Poetics XVIII (Butcher) say not to make a tragedy out of an epic structure with many plots, what examples does it give, and what does it leave unsaid for someone adapting a long story?

- id: art_01M5MVPHQ75BS53BH61GNPV5YZ
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T01 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T17:07:23.489Z
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Butcher's XVIII says do not make an Epic structure, meaning one with a multiplicity of plots, into a tragedy, as if one dramatised the entire Iliad. The reason given is that epic length lets each part reach its proper size while drama does not; poets who dramatised the whole Fall of Troy or the whole of Niobe 'either fail utterly or meet with poor success', and Agathon failed from this defect. Poetics XXIII adds that Homer takes a single portion and uses other events as episodes. The text gives no numeric limit on plots or events, and its sentence on Euripides and Aeschylus can be read two ways in Butcher's English.

Butcher's XVIII says do not make an Epic structure, meaning one with a multiplicity of plots, into a tragedy, as if one dramatised the entire Iliad. The reason given is that epic length lets each part reach its proper size while drama does not; poets who dramatised the whole Fall of Troy or the whole of Niobe 'either fail utterly or meet with poor success', and Agathon failed from this defect. Poetics XXIII adds that Homer takes a single portion and uses other events as episodes. The text gives no numeric limit on plots or events, and its sentence on Euripides and Aeschylus can be read two ways in Butcher's English.

Curator qualifications: XVIII 'whole Iliad' as mistake vs XXIII one or two tragedies from the Iliad: unreconciled (kept).

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 says do not make an Epic structure, meaning one with a multiplicity of plots, into a tragedy, as if one dramatised the entire Iliad. The reason given is that epic length lets each part reach its proper size while drama does not; poets who dramatised the whole Fall of Troy or the whole of Niobe 'either fail utterly or meet with poor success', and Agathon failed from this defect. Poetics XXIII adds that Homer takes a single portion and uses other events as episodes. The text gives no numeric limit on plots or events, and its sentence on Euripides and Aeschylus can be read two ways in Butcher's English. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts · source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1974/pg1974.txt

Rights:
- 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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