Tragedya M.Ö. 6. Yüzyıl ortalarına doğru kent devlet modeli ve ticari ilişkilerin gelişimi ile bağlantılı şekilde ortaya çıkmış olan bir edebiyat türüdür. Toplumsal-siyasal sürecin tragedyanın gelişiminde etkili olduğu görülür. Özellikle M.Ö. 5. yüzyıla kadar olan süreçte polis'in kuruluşu ve demokrasi düşüncesinin yaygınlaşması gibi toplumsal ve politik gelişmeler sonucu biçimlenen tragedya, Antik Yunan dünyasının etik ve politik değerlerinin sözcülüğünü üstlenmiş ve bu anlamda halkın eğitimi işlevini de görmüştür. Erdem (arete), kent devlette yaşayan bireyin sahip olması gereken en önemli özelliktir ve Antik Yunan düşüncesine göre erdemli olabilmek ancak ölçülü (sôphrosûnê) olmakla mümkündür. Bunun gibi uyum (harmonia) da kent devletinin bekası için bireye ve topluma kazandırılması gereken değerlerdendir. Bu değerlerin topluma kazandırılmasında tragedyanın bir eğitim aracı olarak kullanılmış olduğu görülür. Bu çalışmanın amacı, yukarıda kısaca sözü edilen antik Yunan dünyasında hâkim değerlerin tanımlanması ve bu değerlerin tragedyalarda halkın eğitimi amacıyla nasıl kullanılmış olduğunu ortaya koymaktır. Nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden doküman analizi ile gerçekleştirilecek olan çalışmada, antik kaynaklar, tragedyalar, felsefi eserler ve eğitime ilişkin kaynaklar kullanılmıştır. Çalışmanın sonucunda, dönemin siyasi erki tarafından oluşturulmaya çalışılan ortak Yunan kültürü ve 'ulus' bilincinde olması beklenen değerlerin, tragedyalar yoluyla halka aktarılmaya çalışıldığı belirlenmiştir. Bu amaç, tragedyanın doğuşunda ve gelişiminde gerek kurgu gerekse konu seçimi ve içerik hususunda gözlenebilmektedir

The values developed to grant social order are the most important components to provide the continuation of a society. Therefore, values are set and developed through social benefits rather than individual benefits. Individual’s accepting these values enables him / her to experience a sense of belonging and be acknowledged by the society. Those owning and approving these values may reach the leading position by obtaining the power in the society. It is these common values developed by the society which makes up the society from human communities. These may be regarded as state, nation, homeland, language, religion, united history, customs and traditions, democracy, human rights and liberties, peace, tolerance, love, respect, independence and environmental conscience. Any interference in the values of a society will be reacted against by that society and will lead to a chaos which will result in the deformation of a society. Accordingly, the respect and acceptance of the values of the society is an element which those in the leading roles ought not to disregard. Values educations are vital for any society and have always been so throughout the history. However, just as the values of each society are different from each other, so may some values differ in the historical process of the same society. The fact that values change had also been experienced in Ancient Greek World can be traced especially through our topic tragedies. The emergence of city states, ‘Great Colonization Period’, changed the sociological and economical structure of Ancient Greek Society and this also caused the values to change. On the top of the greatest changes was the replacement of the divine rules with the written and changeable laws set by human beings. Apart from this, the development of new values gained importance to provide the survival of the city state model, to construct a new order and to create a nation state. For this, the process in which the values of the society were accepted by the state and subsequently with the help of these values new ones were structured had begun. This process started during the time of tyrant Peisistratos and was viewed in the tragedies as the best way of adding new values to the society. By Peisistratos' officially recognizing the god Dionysus, taking this worship which is important for the public under the control of the state is noteworthy in this respect. Peisistraos’ witnessing the worship of Dionysus in Thrace and being aware of the thought of ‘acceptance and not to rebel’ must be an effective occurrence in the official acceptance of this worship. As this thought just supports the idea of how and how much the public should be educated in Ancient Greek thought. According to ancient Greek thought, education is essential just for the nobles and the wealthy, while public should be educated with fear just to obey. At this point tragedies gain prominence. Already Peisistratos's starting celebration of the Dionysia by the state and carrying out tragedy contests are not in vain. The highest civil servant chooses the work to be presented to the public in tragedy contests and thereby the state government imposing a new censorship. Even the structure of tragedy serves as educating the society as desired. That being moderate, not urging too much is the most expected value from city state citizens is presented in many samples of tragedies. The hero in a tragedy is a normal person with weaknesses and as a result of these mishaps he suffers. By presenting the pain the hero suffers, what is intended is the public will be intimidated and not to fall into weaknesses by associating himself with the hero, that is being virtuous. In order to be virtuous, he is required to be moderate and compliant. In addition to this, such values as patriotism and democracy are among the subjects of tragedy. For the democracy to be set as a value, tyranny was used as the opposite (contrast). It is known that many subjects of tragedies have been taken from myths. And this enabled the divine values, which are extremely important for the public, to be adapted to the time with intensification and the values to be changed in this way. Tragedy writer first persuades the gods to persuade the public in a game. Hence value change comes ultimately true amusingly without getting any reaction from the public by using myths. Athens tragedies were used to determine the values of both its citizens and other city state citizens. That the date when the Dionysia was held was suitable for outer city visitors and the festival to be open to anybody must have caused the values of Athens to be accepted and adopted by other citizens as hence Athens managed to establish superiority among other city states primarily on cultural grounds and later on economic grounds. That Athens was the head of Delian League built against the Persians in BC 478 shows this clearly. In addition, it is influential for Athens to be surely seen on the forefront among other city states except for a few incidences throughout the entire Ancient Greek history