Glossary: Protagonist

In classical Greek tragedy, the Protagonist is the actor of the first role (possibly before Deuteragonist and Tritagonist, i.e. second and third leading role). Today it is understood as the main character in literature and media; the hero of a novel, story or other literary or cinematic work, or more generally, the main performer of an act or action series. In this sense, the Protagonist is not necessarily he title character of a work. The opponent of a Protagonist is also called antagonist (Greek, Antagonistís - literally the counteraction).