This course will take as its point of departure Plato's so-called 'ancient quarrel' between philosophy and poetry. We will read a selection of ancient Greek tragedies from Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and discuss philosophical interpretations of tragic poetry by Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Arendt. Themes of the course will include the relationship between plot and character, fate and chance, and tragedy and thinking.