tritagonist
Sign in to savethumb | right | Marble bust of Aeschines. Greek, 4th - 2nd century BC. Found in ʽHeraclea Lyncestisʼ, today in the Republic of Macedonia. On display in the British Museum, London. In literature, the tritagonist () or tertiary main character is the third most important character of a narrative, after the protagonist and deuteragonist. In ancient Greek drama, the tritagonist was the third member of the acting troupe.
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thumb | right | Marble bust of Aeschines. Greek, 4th - 2nd century BC. Found in ʽHeraclea Lyncestisʼ, today in the Republic of Macedonia. On display in the British Museum, London. In literature, the tritagonist () or tertiary main character is the third most important character of a narrative, after the protagonist and deuteragonist. In ancient Greek drama, the tritagonist was the third member of the acting troupe.
As a character, a tritagonist may act as the instigator or cause of the sufferings of the protagonist. Despite being the least sympathetic character of the drama, they occasion the situations by which pity and sympathy for the protagonist are heightened.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “tritagonist” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.