The tragic hero is a redemptive victim. A redemptive victim is a point, symbol, and form of mediation. The tragic contrast lies between the grief that justifies nothing and the myth that justifies everything. In these mythical theophanies, a transformation of the harsh god into a just god is accomplished, and of time, which devours everything, into a story that fulfills its purposes. In tragic anthropology, only the name of the redemptive victim changes. The myth of mediation remains the same. The path of exile from paradise, to the other paradise that has been promised, is paved with corpses. Tragedy is a spectacular display of these corpses.

Jan Kott