The Andreia of Grieving: Rehearsing Heroic Grief on the Ancient Athenian Stage

Tragic heroes of the ancient Athenian stage were characters rendered in a sociopolitical state with formidable limitations for emotional experiences of men experiencing pain, grief, and suffering. This study questions how Athenian tragedy crafted unique, “heroic” expressions of grief as pedagogical tools that would allow the tragic hero (and, through the citizen-making device of performance, the Athenian polis) to perform of grief, suffering, or shame without compromising their andreia—the Greek conception of one’s “manly spirit.”