Tragedy, Comedy, and Philosophy in Ancient Greece
The purpose of this conference is to revisit the relationship between philosophy and poetry by centering the discussion on the two dramatic genres that defined classical Athens: tragedy and comedy. Plato called this relationship “an ancient quarrel,” and Aristophanes, before him, never tired of staging a rivalry between comedy and tragedy (especially Euripides’), on the one hand, and between comedy and philosophy (especially Socrates’), on the other. Drawing on readings of the dramatic corpus—from Aeschylus to Aristophanes—as well as of Plato and Aristotle, and of modern and contemporary authors such as Hegel and Nietzsche, Heidegger and Adorno, Arendt and Strauss, the conference will, however, give particular attention to approaches that do not view tragedy, comedy, and philosophy merely as rivals in their claim to authority over the paideia of citizens, but rather as complementary modes of interrogating human existence and its conditions of possibility within the Greek polis.
The conference brings together specialists in classics and philosophy from five universities: NOVA University Lisbon, PUC–Rio, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the University of São Paulo, and the University of Patras (Greece).
The event will also feature the participation of the theatre group Colectivo Sul, as part of its artistic residency at FCSH during the year 2026.
Programme
The sessions will take place at NOVA FCSH (Berna Campus).
24 February
14h–16h, Room A006
Maria João Mayer Branco, Aprender sofrendo: a lição trágica n’O nascimento da tragédia
Carolina Araújo, Cleobulinas: a filósofa como tipo na Comédia Ática
16h–18h, Room A005
Luisa Buarque, A tragédia sem êthos? Uma interpretação de Poética, 1450a24
Adriane Duarte, Um passeio ao campo com Aristófanes e Platão: um diálogo entre o Fedro e As aves
25 February
10h–12h, Room A101
Charis Tabakis, Psychological prerequisites of the dramatic display according to Aristotle
Paulo Lima, Pode falar-se de um erôs dionisíaco? Platão, Nietzsche e a tradição religiosa e literária da antiga Grécia
18h–20h, Auditorium C1
Colectivo Sul — An original theatrical piece created from selected excerpts of the plays Antigone and Lysistrata
26 February
16h–18h, Room A005
João Constâncio, Hegel e a Lisístrata de Aristófanes
Vasiliki Kousoulini, Good Wives in the Oikos: Ethics, Economics, and Politics in Greek Tragedy and Ancient Greek Philosophical Thought