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1. Sophocles -- Tragedies
   Only seven of Sophocles' tragedies survive in their entirety, along with 400 lines of a satyr play, numerous fragments of plays now lost, and 90 titles. All seven of the complete plays are works of Sophocles' maturity, but only two of them, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus, have fairly certain dates. Ajax is generally regarded as the earliest of the extant plays.
2. Aristotle -- Tragedies
   Aristotle distinguished six elements of a tragic drama: Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle and Melody. Diction and Melody are the style of the text or lyrics, and the music to which some of them are set (Greek tragedy was like opera in that parts of it, though not usually the principal lines of the actors, were sung). "Spectacle" refers to staging, lighting, sets, costumes, and the like. Thought refers to the indications, given primarily through words but ... through other means, of what the characters are thinking. That leaves the two elements to which Artistotle paid most attention, Plot and Character. Of these two, Aristotle thought that the Plot comes first.
3. Euripides -- Tragedies
   Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Sophocles; he is the youngest of the three. He was born c. 480 BC. His mother’s name was Cleito, and his father’s either Mnesarchus or Mnesarchides. There is a tradition that states Cleito earned an income by selling herbs in the marketplace; Aristophanes found this to be a source of amusement and used it in many comedies. However, there is significant evidence which leads most to believe that Euripides’ family was quite comfortable financially, and wouldn’t have needed such a source of income.
4. Aeschylus -- Tragedies
   Aeschylus was the first of the three great ancient Greek writers of tragedy. Born at Eleusis, Aeschylus lived from about 525–456 B.C., during which time the Greeks suffered invasion by the Persians in the Persian Wars. Aeschylus fought at the Battle of Marathon.
5. Jonestown -- Jonestown Tragedy
   [T]hat is EXACTLY what the Jonestown research looks like. The lack of any meaningful comprehension of the deaths at Jonestown pervades the scholarly field every bit as much as it dominated the pre-tragedy press. POLLUTED. The original sources (from which every scholarly work out there has drawn) portrayed themselves as blameless plaintiffs, when the reality was not only brutally one-sided, but a reality of PERSECUTION, and a frightful, virtually absolute IMBALANCE OF POWER.
6. Friedrich Nietzsche -- Greek Tragedy
   A study of Nietzsche's influence on the writings of Kazantzakis, focusing on his novel, Zorba the Greek. Discussion of the Birth of Tragedy, Apollonian and Dionysian creative forces, master and slave moralities, Zarathustra, Time, eternal recurrence, and Woman.
7. Bhopal -- Bhopal Gas Tragedy
   Introduction Around 1 a.m. on Monday, the 3rd of December, 1984, in a densely populated region in the city of Bhopal, Central India, a poisonous vapor burst from the tall stacks of the Union Carbide pesticide plant. This vapor was a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate. Of the 800,000 people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 died immediately, and as many as 300,000 were injured. In addition, about 7,000 animals were injured, of which about one thousand were killed. “A series of studies made five years later showed that many of the survivors were still suffering from one or several of the following ailments: partial or complete blindness, gastrointestinal disorders, impaired immune systems, post traumatic stress disorders, and menstrual problems in women. A rise in spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, and offspring with genetic defects was ... noted.” (The Bhopal Disaster) This incident we now refer to as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, which has also been called “Hiroshima of the Chemical Industry” one of the worst commercial industrial disasters in history.(Cohen)
8. Ethnic Cleansing -- Miscellaneous
   "This agency participated in the ethnic cleansing that befell the Western tribes," Gover said. "It must be acknowledged that the deliberate spread of disease, the decimation of the mighty bison herds, the use of the poison alcohol to destroy mind and body, and the cowardly killing of women and children made for tragedy on a scale so ghastly that it cannot be dismissed as merely the inevitable consequence of the clash of competing ways of life."
9. Things Fall Apart -- Ibos
   Critics praise Achebe for his adept shifts in point of view in Things Fall Apart. Achebe begins the story from Okonkwo's point of view. Okonkwo's story helps the reader understand the Ibo's daily customs and rituals as well as celebrations for the main events in life: birth, marriage, and death. As the story progresses... it becomes more the clan's story than Okonkwo's personal story. The reader follows the clan's life, gradual disintegration, and death. The novel becomes one of situation rather than character; the reader begins to feel a certain sympathy for the tribe instead of the individual.
10. Seneca -- Plays
    Seneca was perhaps best known... for his scenes of violence and horror. In Oedipus, for example, Jocasta rips open her womb, and in Thyestes, the bodies of children are served at a banquet. Other writers would later imitate these scenes of violence and horror. Consider, for example, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi in which the Duchess' enemies create a ghastly wax scene of her murdered husband and children. Seneca's fascination with magic, death, and the supernatural would also be imitated by many Elizabethan playwrights including, among others, Christopher Marlowe.

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