It is commonly said that spectators of tragedies already knew the myths enacted in them. But what did they really know of these stories? Are the relations between myth and tragedy that linear? The presente article aims precisely at questioning this linearity, by showing the kind of claims, cuts and choices suffered by the mythical material on its way to the scene. Tragedy is restricted to certain segments of the mythical tale, those the poet thinks to be moments in which is concentrated the meaning of the whole fact. The memory of extraordinary events and of great endeavors becomes then the memory of strong emotions, which strongly determines our view of Greeks myths.
tragedy; myth; memory; human action; emotion