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The parts of Tragedy to be treated as formative elements in the whole
were mentioned in a previous Chapter. From the point of view, however,
of its quantity, i.e. the separate sections into which it is divided,
a tragedy has the following parts: Prologue, Episode, Exode, and a
choral portion, distinguished into Parode and Stasimon; these two are
common to all tragedies, whereas songs from the stage and Commoe are
only found in some. The Prologue is all that precedes the Parode of
the chorus; an Episode all that comes in between two whole choral
songs; the Exode all that follows after the last choral song. In the
choral portion the Parode is the whole first statement of the chorus;
a Stasimon, a song of the chorus without anapaests or trochees; a
Commas, a lamentation sung by chorus and actor in concert. The parts
of Tragedy to be used as formative elements in the whole we have
already mentioned; the above are its parts from the point of view of
its quantity, or the separate sections into which it is divided.




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The next points after what we have said above will be these: (1) What
is the poet to aim at, and what is he to avoid, in constructing his
Plots? and (2) What are the conditions on which the tragi.e.fect
depends?