Emotions play an important role in ancient aesthetics. On the one side the heroes of epic and tragedy are moved by strong passions and often tend to act in accordance with their emotional states. On the other side the spectators of tragedy and the hearers of certain rhythms and melodies are emotionally moved in a distinctive way. The chapter gives a survey of the several ways in which emotions are involved in the Classical Greek theater and in Archaic music. It introduces the early philosophical reflections on aesthetic emotions and summarizes Plato's famous criticism of poetry and music. While Plato is quite suspicious of the emotional impact of poetry, Aristotle seems to have a more welcoming attitude toward the emotional effect of tragedy; he even defines tragedies by the fact that they arouse the emotions of pity and fear and finally lead to a katharsis of those emotions. Finally, the chapter turns to the Stoics who, as opposed to Aristotle, defend the ideal of a complete absence of emotional disturbances. Nevertheless they are interested in tragedies and tragic passions, which will be demonstrated for Seneca, who at the same time composed passionate tragedies and developed the Stoic theory of emotions.