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Comedy & Tragedy

Comedy & Tragedy

Regular price $29.50 USD
Regular price Sale price $29.50 USD
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Tragedy and Comedy are classic symbols of theatre, and metaphors as well for the duality of human emotional experience. Like Yin and Yang, they exist within each other.

The theatrical masks of classic Greece, Tragedy and Comedy, were used in their sacred dramas; actors in early drama were not meant to show their faces, and instead, bronze or leather masks were held up to illustrate the right emotions for the course of the story/play.

All around the world, and in contemporary indigenous cultures, masks are meant to display the attributes of the deities, and to tell the sacred stories, such as the use of masks in Hindu Bali. Masks are often regarded as a vessel for the Gods to enter this order of existence, indwelling or even possessing the actor/dancer during the length of the ritual drama. The old German word for mask was "grim", which was also a word that occurred in the names of deities and heroes, hence the idea that the divine beings were also literally indwelling in some measure in the masks. The church may have been fearful that the old pagan gods would thus manifest again, and forbade the wearing of masks, although the practice persisted in celebrations of Halloween and Carnival, as well as among mummer troupes and in country festivals that still honored such archetypal beings as the Green man.

Would you like to read more? Please read our blog post on the design of Comedy/Tragedy.

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All of our medallions are 1" in diameter.

We also press 24K Gold (provided by the customer). Contact Us for recommended sources of gold and physical specifications of gold blanks.

We do patina and polish all medallions that we ship out. Please see product photos and our Instagram or Facebook for examples of the look. We understand that additional services are provided at the Fairs and Festivals, but we cannot facilitate those services. 

Want to know more about the meaning of each symbol? Please check out the Symbol Gallery! Or do you want more information about ordering at a fair or festival? Please see our Design Brochure.