The true tragic fear becomes an almost impersonal emotion [...] The spectator who is brought face to face with grander sufferings than his own experiences a sympathetic ecstacy, or lifting out of himself. It is precisely in this transport of feeling, which carries a man beyond his individual self, that the distinctive tragic pleasure resides. Pity and fear are purged of the impure element which clings to them in life.

ARISTOTLE, 'The Poetics'