Table to Understand Attributes

The markup for each greek tragedy included attributes to describe each pain event. Below is a table containing the keys for each of the attributes and their respective meanings.

As you can see, there are two main classes for attributes - those that are required for all pain events and those that are required only for events that have an inflictor.


Attribute Description
rec receiver, indicates the name of who is experiencing pain, required in all events of pain
recGen gender of receiver, indicates the binary gender of the character who is experiencing pain, possible values are man, woman, and mix for a mixed group of individuals, required in all events of pain
recNorm whether the character experiencing pain fits the general norms of Greek society, from the perspective of the original Greek audience of the tragedy; when a receiver of pain would not be socially accepted in Greek society, this value is no and otherwise yes, required in all events of pain
painType the type of pain being experienced, possible values are em for emotional, phys for physical, and both for both kinds of pain at once in one event, required in all events of pain
inf inflictor, the name of who is inflicting pain, in the case of a nonhuman inflictor this can only take the values of disease or nature required when someone is inflicting pain, but not in all
infGen gender of inflictor, the gender of the person inflicting pain, possible values are man, woman, or mix for a mixed group of people, required for all that have an inf
infNorm whether the character inflicting pain fits the general norms of Greek society, from the perspective of the original Greek audience of the tragedy, when a receiver of pain would not be socially accepted in Greek society, this value is no and otherwise yes, required for all that have an inf
recRel relation of receiver to inflictor, required for all that have an inf
infRel relation of inflictor to receiver, required for all that have an inf
direct whether the pain that is being inflicted is direct or not, possible values are yes if the pain is directly caused by the inflictor or no if the pain is indirectly caused, required for all that have an inf

Examples of attributes you might see:

As you can see, there are two main types of attribute groupings: one with an inflictor and one wiithout.