Tetralogy

For the congenital heart condition, see Tetralogy of Fallot

A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four (numerical prefix tetra-) distinct works.

The name comes from the Attic theater, where tetralogies were meant to be played in one sitting at the Dionysia. In more recent times, Shakespeare wrote two tetralogies, the first consisting of the three Henry VI plays and Richard III, and the second consisting of Richard II, the two Henry IV plays, and Henry V. Richard Wagner's "Der Ring der Nibelungen" - the 'Ring Cycle' - is also referred to as a tetralogy.

Famous tetralogies

Literary works

In literature, the term Tetralogy has also been applied to novels, plays, and poetry, such as:

Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet
Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End
Henry de Montherlant's Les Jeunes Filles
Yukio Mishima's The Sea of Fertility
Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts
Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers
Paul Scott's Raj Quartet
Yaşar Kemal's İnce Memed
Jonathan Bayliss's Gloucesterman
Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter quartet
Terry Brooks's The Heritage of Shannara quartet
T. H. White's The Once and Future King
Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun and Book of the Long Sun
Tamora Pierce's The Song of the Lioness
William Shakespeare's sequence of history plays: Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, Henry V
Claude Royet-Journoud's Le Renversement, La Notion d'Obstacle, Les Objects contiennent l'infini, and Les Natures indivisibles (poetry published between 1972 and 1997)
John Updike's Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit at Rest)

Movies

Alien Quadrilogy
Shrek (4th planned 2010)^{[citation needed]}
Indiana Jones (4th planned 2008)^{[citation needed]}
Lethal Weapon
Die Hard
Jaws
Rambo (4th planned 2008)
Termiantor (4th planned 2009

Music

Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, a series of four epic music dramas.
Coheed and Cambria's The Amory Wars concept albums

Video games

Grand Theft Auto
Quest for Glory (Was originally planned as a tetralogy, but Wages of War was inserted.)
Metal Gear Solid (series)
Monkey Island

Historical works

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill.

A series of four novels is also called a quartet.

The 20th Century Fox marketing team coined the nonstandard synonym "quadrilogy" for the release of their Alien DVD box set The Alien Quadrilogy. This uses the Latin numerical prefix quadri-/quadr-, instead of the usual Greek tetra-, with the Greek -logy.