Origin of Tragedy Author:William Ridgeway 1910. With special reference to the Greek tragedians. The general theory advanced within this work, that tragedy originated in the worship of the dead, was first put forward in a lecture before the Society for the promotion of Hellenic Studies in 1904. Contents: origin of tragedy; rise of Attic tragedy; primitive drama among Asiatic peoples; sur... more »vivals of the primitive type in extant Greek tragedies; expansion of tragedy. Illustrated.« less