No Greek Tragedy Here

To describe Eliot Spitzer’s recent fall from grace as a "Greek tragedy" (as several pundits have done) does a disservice to the Greeks. It is yet another example of the pervasive dumbing down of our public discourse.

Spitzer was self-righteous and arrogant. He somehow got it in his head that electoral success entitled him to certain perks that he himself had vehemently denied to others.

For Spitzer’s fall from power to qualify as "Greek," it would have to be truly "tragic" as Aristotle defined it. According to Aristotle’s Poetics, "The change to bad fortune which [the tragic hero] undergoes is not due to any moral defect or flaw, but a mistake of some kind." Oedipus, for example, murdered his father and slept with his mother by mistake, i.e., the circumstances of his life were such that he did not know the true identity of his parents. Had he known his parents’ true identity, he would not have committed the acts which caused his downfall.

Spitzer, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing. He just felt that the rules no longer applied to him. Garden variety arrogance is NOT tragic hubris.

Oedipus was a tragic hero. Eliot Spitzer, a self-important weasel.

There is a difference.