Katharsis
Katharsis was both a ritual purification from miasma and — in Aristotle's famous definition — the emotional cleansing that tragedy performs on its audience.
The Meaning of Katharsis
In religious practice, katharsis was the ritual purging of miasma through sacrifice, lustral water, or divine intervention. Apollo purified Orestes at Delphi. But Aristotle transformed the concept in the Poetics: tragedy, by arousing pity and terror, achieves a katharsis of these emotions in the audience — a healthy release that leaves them clarified and calmer. This dual meaning — physical purification and emotional release through art — has made katharsis one of the most discussed concepts in Western aesthetics.
Symbols
Fun Fact
Every time someone calls a good cry "cathartic," they are using Aristotle's theatrical concept, which he took from Greek ritual purification.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Catharsis
💭 conceptRitual and Drama
The concept of emotional purification through experiencing pity and fear in Greek tragedy.
Catharsis
💭 conceptEmotional purification through art
Aristotle's concept that tragedy purifies the audience by arousing and then releasing pity and fear.
Miasma
💭 conceptSpiritual pollution from bloodshed
The concept of ritual pollution caused by murder, contact with death, or moral transgression that required purification.
Miasma
💭 conceptRitual pollution
Miasma was the concept of ritual pollution — a spiritual contamination caused by bloodshed, sacrilege, or contact with death that could infect an entire community.
Dionysian Mysteries
💭 conceptReligion
Ecstatic ritual practices devoted to Dionysus involving wine, music, and spiritual liberation
Apollonian and Dionysian
💭 conceptPhilosophy and aesthetics
A philosophical dichotomy introduced by Nietzsche contrasting the rational, ordered, and formal qualities associated with Apollo against the ecstatic, chaotic, and primal forces associated with Dionysus
Enthousiasmos
💭 conceptReligion and Inspiration
The state of being possessed by a god, the original meaning of divine inspiration in Greek religion.
Thargelia
💭 conceptFestival, Apollo, purification
Athenian purification festival honouring Apollo with scapegoat rituals and first-fruits offerings
Ekstasis
💭 conceptReligion and Mysticism
The experience of standing outside oneself, the Greek term for mystical transport and altered consciousness.
Pharmakos
💭 conceptreligion, ritual
The scapegoat — a person selected to carry the community's pollution and be driven out or ritually sacrificed to purify the city.
Eleos
💭 conceptEthics and Emotion
The Greek concept of mercy and compassion, personified as a god and central to Athenian civic identity.
Pathos
💭 conceptRhetoric and Emotion
The Greek rhetorical appeal to emotion, one of Aristotle's three modes of persuasion.