Covid-19 has not yet reached its peak but already the moguls of the small screen are plotting how to monetise, with exquisite sensitivity, of course, the tragic deaths of thousands of people. They would be wise to listen to the Athenian lovers of tragedy.
In 499 bc the powerful Greek city of Miletus on the coast of western Turkey (Asia Minor) raised a revolt against its Persian overlords. It failed and in 494 bc Persia took its revenge: the city was sacked, its women and children sold into slavery, and most of its men slaughtered. Just a year or so later, the poet Phrynichus turned this historical incident into a tragedy, our first record of such a development. It was not a success. Herodotus reported the response as follows: ‘The audience burst into tears, fined him a thousand drachmas for reminding them of a disaster that was so personal to them, and made an order that no one should ever stage it again.
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