According to , "the of the best tragedy should be not simple but complex and one that represents incidents arousing and --for that is peculiar to this form of art." This of fortune must be caused by the tragic hero's , which is often mistranslated as a , but is more correctly translated as a mistake (since the original Greek etymology traces back to hamartanein, a sporting term that refers to an or -thrower missing his target). According to , "The change to bad which he undergoes is not due to any defect or flaw, but a mistake of some kind." The reversal is the inevitable but unforeseen result of some action taken by the hero. It is also a misconception that this reversal can be brought about by a higher power (e.g. the , the , , or ), but if a character’s downfall is brought about by an cause, describes this as a and not a tragedy.
In addition, the tragic hero may achieve some revelation or recognition (--"knowing again" or "knowing back" or "knowing throughout") about human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods. Aristotle terms this sort of recognition "a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate."
In Poetics, Aristotle gave the following definition in of the word "tragedy" (τραγωδία):
Ἐστὶν οὖν τραγωδία μίμησις πράξεως σπουδαίας καὶ τελείας, μέγεθος ἐχούσης, ἡδυσμένῳ λόγῳ, χωρὶς ἑκάστῳ τῶν εἰδὼν ἐν τοῖς μορίοις, δρώντων καὶ οὐ δι'ἀπαγγελίας, δι' ἐλέου καὶ φόβου περαίνουσα τὴν τῶν τοιούτων παθημάτων κάθαρσιν.
which means Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is admirable, complete (composed of an introduction, a middle part and an ending), and possesses magnitude; in language made pleasurable, each of its species separated in different parts; performed by actors, not through narration; effecting through pity and fear the purification of such emotions.
