The Frogs

“XANTHIAS. Oh misery me! If only I’d served in that sea-fight—

I’d tell you to go and get stuffed, I really would!”

The sea-fight Xanthias refers to here is the battle at Arginousai that took place in 406 B.C.E. against Sparta. Enslaved men who fought in the battle were granted their freedom. Hence Xanthias laments that if he had fought and become a citizen, he would be in a position to talk back to Dionysos, though that is what he is doing anyway. The battle is alluded to multiple times in the play, as it was both a victory and a disaster for Athens. Though they won the battle, a storm in the aftermath prevented them from recovering and returning to Athens the bodies of their dead. Enraged citizens tried and rashly executed or exiled the victorious generals.

“HERAKLES. But I just can’t stifle this laughter that’s overcome me

At the sight of this lion skin here with your saffron dress.

[In a mocking tone] What’s your state of mind? Why these boots and club combined?”

The saffron-colored dress and books Herakles refers to were believed to be upscale women’s clothing but may also refer to Dionysiac ritual. Herakles’ question too may refer to the altered state of mind that ritual celebrants cultivated. The lion skin and club are both characteristic tokens associated with Herakles, and when in Hades, both Dionysos and Xanthias claim to be Herakles when they wear them. Herakles’ bemusement seems to stem from the unexpected combination of Dionysiac and Heraklean symbols.

“DIONYSOS. In fact it was on board ship as I read it myself

That play Andromeda, all of a sudden it happened:

The most intense desire took hold of my heart.” 

Dionysos claims that his desire for Euripides first gripped him while “on board ship” fighting in the Arginousai when he was, improbably, reading one of the tragedian’s plays in the midst of battle. The play, Andromeda, is now lost, but from fragments scholars have deduced that it tells the story of Perseus saving Andromeda from a sea monster and falling in love with her. These themes of salvation and desire echo in Frogs, though in a parodic context. From a historical perspective, Dionysos’ comment is an early reference to reading for the sake of reading, as opposed to reading a text for the purposes of memorization and performance.

“DIONYSOS. I need a skillful poet.

The best are all now dead and the rest are no good.”

Dionysos does not, at this early stage, specify why he needs a skillful poet, though it is implied by his desire occurring to him while fighting in a sea battle that proved catastrophic for Athens. The city is in danger, and poets are among the city’s teachers. It is believed that Euripides and Sophokles died a few months apart in 406, with Euripides dying first. Aristophanes likely composed Frogs in the second half of 406 and may have had to make adjustments late in the composition process to account for Sophokles’ death.

“DIONYSOS [animated]. But they’re shriveled grapes, producers of empty prattle,

And haunts of twittering swallows. They damage the art,

And as soon as they’ve staged a single play they vanish,

Content to have posted on tragedy just the once!

You’ll search in vain for a poet of fertile mind,

The kind who’s able to voice great noble expressions.

HERAKLES. What d’you mean by ‘fertile’?

DIONYSOS. The sort whose language contains

Such bold, ambitious utterances as these:

[airily] ‘Aither, bedroom of Zeus,’ ‘the foot of time,’

Or ‘a mind that refuses to swear a sacred oath

But a tongue that perjured itself without the mind.’” 

Herakles and Dionysos’ discussion prefigures the contest in the second half of Frogs between Aischylos and Euripides. On the one hand, it seems that Dionysos wants to bring a poet back to Athens to save the art of tragedy, but the reference to fertility hints at Dionysos’ deeper purpose to save Athens, voiced later in the play. In ancient Greek texts, a prosperous, peaceful city is repeatedly compared to a fertile garden in which elements are harmoniously balanced.

“HERAKLES. Do you want me to tell you a quick and downhill route?

DIONYSOS. By Zeus, yes please! I’m not very good at walking.

HERAKLES. Then take a stroll to the Kerameikos.

DIONYSOS. What then?

HERAKLES. Climb up the tower, that high one.

DIONYSOS. And what after that?

HERAKLES. Look down from there when they’re going to hold a torch-race.

Then when you hear the spectators all shout, “Go then!’,

At that point go yourself.

DIONYSOS. Go where?

HERAKLES. Straight down!

DIONYSOS. But that would make mincemeat of both halves of my brain!

That’s not the way I want to go.” 

Herakles and Dionysos’ banter here is an example of how ancient and modern sensibilities can conflict. Dionysos has asked for directions to Hades, and Herakles is providing him step-by-step instructions for how to kill himself. Until Herakles’ last utterance, he might be providing directions to Hades’ entrance. The punchline is that Dionysos is a god: He might make “mincemeat of both halves of [his] brain,” but he is still immortal (177). Thus, it is not possible for him to get to Hades by dying.

“CHARON. Is there anyone here for the resting-place from troubles?

Anyone for the Plain of Forgetting or Hopeless Task,

Or Kerberos Town, Crows’ End, or Tainaron Point?” 

When Charon’s boat pulls up to where Dionysos is standing, Charon calls out various destinations, a blend of historical places (Tainaron Point in the Peloponnese), underworld places (Kerberos Town, Plain of Forgetting), and even an allusion to death itself (Crow’s End). In addition, “go to the crows” was a curse in ancient Greek. Boundaries are blurred across the play in a variety of ways. Here, the boundary crossing is of real, imagined, and figurative places.

“DIONYSOS. But I’m developing blisters here

And my anus has long been oozing sweat.

Any moment now it will peep out and say—

FROGS. Brekekekex ko-ax ko-ax!”

Frogs is unusual in having two choruses, first the Frogs, then the Eleusinian initiates. In this section, Dionysos and the Frogs both compete and harmonize. They are arguing over each other, but Dionysos also rows to the rhythm of their song, and they complete his sentences. This kind of duality, where opposites coexist and complete each other, is characteristic of archaic and classical Greek culture. This passage is also an example of Aristophanes’ vulgar humor.

“DIONYSOS. So did you see the father-beaters round here.

And the perjurers too, the way he described?

XANTHIAS. Didn’t you?

DIONYSOS. By Poseidon I certainly did—[peering at audience] and

I still see them now!” 

Mocking the audience is a characteristic feature of Old Comedy that occurs several times in Frogs, as is direct address. The spectators at an ancient comedy or tragedy cannot necessarily be understood as audiences in the modern sense, i.e. as disinterested observers. Plays were performed in the context of sacred festivals in which members of the community came together to honor the gods, invoke their goodwill, and affirm the city’s values, in this case of democracy and debate.

“LEADER. I proclaim ceremonial silence now and demand all those should depart

Who have no knowledge of what’s said here or whose minds are far from pure,

Or who’ve never seen our noble Muses’ rites or joined in their dances

Or those who remain outside the cult of Kratinos the bull-eating god,

Or who take great pleasure in vulgar jokes at a time when they’re out of places [...]

Or the politician who tries to reduce the fees of dramatic poets

Just because he’s been mocked in the ancient rites that belong to the god Dionysos.”

On the first day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a proclamation would be made summoning initiates, who had to meet certain criteria (they had to understand Greek, they could not have committed homicide). Aristophanes here similarly has his Chorus Leader proclaim the start of a ceremony that is intended for insiders who meet certain criteria. The Chorus Leader’s proclamation involves elements of comic subversion, including ousting people who inappropriately take “pleasure in vulgar jokes” and politicians who reduce poets’ payment because they have mocked said politicians in comedies. Simultaneously, it incorporates comedic theater into sacred Dionysian ritual: “the ancient rites that belong to the god Dionysos” refers to comedy (187).

“CHORUS. And may we utter many jokes

But many serious things as well,

And may we serve your festival

In worthy spirit of playful humour

And win the ribbons of victory.” 

The Chorus’s song in this passage further reinforces comedy’s role as both entertaining play and serious commentary. This again links comic theater with sacred ritual. The Eleusinian Mysteries, though very serious, also created opportunities for play and humor. This is an example of how ancient Greeks did not see humor and seriousness as opposing elements.

“LEADER. Right and proper it is for us, a sacred chorus, to give the city

Best advice and best instructions. First of all we think you should

Treat all citizens now the same and take away the fears of some.

Those who may have done some wrong when tripped in Phrynichos’ wrestling-bouts,

Now’s the time to let them leave their previous lapses in the past,

Let them shed their former guilt and wipe away their old mistakes.

Next, we think no one should live amongst us with their rights curtailed.”

The “wrestling-bouts” seem to be a reference to 411 B.C.E., when an oligarchic coup overthrew and briefly replaced democracy in Athens: Phyrnichos (a different one from the tragic poet referred to in line 12) was a key oligarch conspirator. After democracy was restored, Athenians accused of anti-democratic participation had been stripped of their citizenship. The chorus seems here to suggest they should be forgiven and their citizenship restored, something which may have happened later in 405 when Athens was in desperate need of military resources.

“LEADER. Many’s the time we’ve noticed something strange about the city’s ways,

Namely, how it treats those citizens who deserve to be thought the best

Just the same as it treats old coins as well as the recent gold ones too.

Those were coins of solid value, no counterfeits of them were found.

Nowhere has there ever been a finer currency, all agree.

Only they were minted pure and always proved their worth when tested;

All the world could count on them, Greeks and barbarians both alike.

Now, however, they’re obsolete, replaced by lousy coins of bronze,

Recently minted, of no long standing, and stamped in the ugliest fashion as well.” 

Throughout the play, especially during the weighing of the words at the end of Aischylos and Dionysos’ contest, Aristophanes identifies connections between the literal and figurative. Here, the reference to coins seems to refer to a change in how they were minted in Athens: from using silver and gold to less valuable bronze coins, which may have been silver-plated, giving only the appearance of value. Thus, the Chorus Leader compares the literal devaluing of coins to the figurative devaluing of citizens.

“XANTHIAS. You’re my own flesh and blood! And when you hear your masters

In private conversations?

SLAVE D. I’m crazy with joy!

XANTHIAS. Then dishing the dirt about them to others?

SLAVE D. Oh yes!

That’s such a thrill it makes me ejaculate!” 

The conversation between Xanthias and Slave D alludes to the importance given to Rumor, who was a goddess in the Greek pantheon. In a society as honor and shame focused as classical Athens, concern about becoming the subject of rumors could be a potent fear and social motivator.

“AISCHYLOS. In my case what I composed hasn’t died with me,

But his has died with him, so he’ll have it to hand.”

At the time Aristophanes composed Frogs, Aischylos’ plays had become enshrined in the tragic canon. His plays had the rare honor of being produced posthumously, something not yet done for Euripides, who had died only the previous year. Posthumous production could be what Aischylos is referring to in the above passage. His works live on in Athens while it is not yet evident that Euripides’ will.

“EURIPIDES. This way of writing was democratic.

DIONYSOS. Don’t pursue this line, old chap.

It’s not a direction of argument that promises well for you.”

Euripides has been defending the clearness of his language as compared to Aischylos’, especially because all of his characters speak the same way, whatever their role in society. In this exchange, Euripides claims this was a choice that reflected value for democracy. Dionysos’ reply speaks to the contemporary situation: Euripides had left Athens for the court at Macedon, which was not democratic. Thus to claim that his choice was a way to promote democracy does not ring true to Dionysos.

“AISCHYLOS. [To EURIPIDES] Just answer me this: what kinds of things should prompt our praise for a poet?

EURIPIDES. Sophistication and moral advice. And because it’s our task to improve

All the people who live in the cities of Greece.

AISCHYLOS. So if you have failed to achieve that

And you took good people of noble mind and turned them instead into rabble,

What penalty will you agree you deserve?”

Both Aischylos and Euripides share the belief that a poet’s purpose is to provide moral guidance to the citizens of Greek city-states. This position seems to be taken for granted by Aristophanes as well, via the Chorus Leader and the contest itself being the central event in the play. What values should be taught, how these values should be promoted through the art form, and what the penalty for failing at the task are the topics of debate, in the play and within contemporary Athenian society.

“AISCHYLOS. My mind in turn was molded by Homer; I wrote about heroes like his,

The lion-heart types like Patroclus and Teukros. My aim was to rouse every man

To emulate great figures like them when the trumpet of war sounded out.

But I never created a whore like Phaidra, nor that other one too, Stheneboia,

And no one can name a woman of mine who suffers from sexual passion.”

Euripides’ plays were controversial in his time, in part because they were difficult to pin down. One of the plays Aischylos ostensibly refers to here is Euripides’ Hippolytus, in which, wanting to punish Hippolytus for shunning love, Aphrodite prompts his mother-in-law Phaidra to fall in love with him, and the events turn tragic for all involved. Aischylos contrasts his own attention to martial heroes with Euripides’ focus on women who experience “sexual passion,” though he neglects to account for the role of the gods in engineering these scenarios.

“EURIPIDES. But didn’t the story I wrote about Phaidra exist already before me?

AISCHYLOS. It did, but still it’s the poet’s duty to draw a veil over evil

And not to stage or teach such matters. For just as smaller children

Have a teacher who tells them things, so poets are teachers to those who are adults.”

Aischylos again returns to the subject of poets as teachers for adults. Earlier in their contest, Euripides noted that his plays were meant to prompt spectators “to think, to observe, to comprehend, to wriggle and always be crafty,/To cultivate a suspicious mind, to ponder all things” (212). Craftiness, which is associated with Homer’s least overtly martial hero, Odysseus, and suspicion are somewhat ambiguous as values for classical Athens. Euripides himself craftily points out that he did not invent the story of Phaidra, but Aischylos is not swayed: Poets often reshaped myths to suit the time when they were being retold, thus the myth’s preexistence fails to account for Euripides’ portrayal of that myth.

“AISCHYLOS. What evils hasn’t he helped to cause?

He’s shown us women as go-betweens

And women in childbirth in sacred places

And women who sleep with their very own brothers

And women who say that life is death.

And consequences of all these things

Is our city’s now teeming with minor officials

And buffoons who serve as public monkeys

Deceiving the people at every turn,

And nobody’s able to carry a torch

Since nobody trains in gymnasia now.” 

Aischylos here accuses Euripides of causing the degeneration of Athens and its citizens through the salacious content of his plays. The passage is filled with references to specific plays in which Euripides portrays women behaving contrary to the norms of contemporary Athenian society. The woman who acted as go-between, for example, was a nurse in Hippolytus who brought messages from Phaedra to Hippolytus. By portraying these characters and events, Aischylos argues, Euripides taught Athenians to be disregard social norms.

“EURIPIDES. But I put in persuasion—my verse is perfect.

DIONYSOS. But persuasion is something light and lacking in thought.

Try one more time to find a ponderous weight

Whose size and mass will tilt the scales on your side.” 

This exchange between Dionysos and Euripides follows the weighing of the words on the scales. Euripides has put persuasion onto the scales, quoting a line from his play Antigone, but his words come up light against those of Aischylos. The latter put death onto the scales, quoting from his play Niobe (neither Antigone nor has survived complete into the present). Dionysos tells Euripides that death is “the heaviest evil we know,” while persuasion is “light and lacking in thought” (229). As occurs throughout the play, Aristophanes plays with the concept of weight, melding literal and figurative.

“DIONYSOS. I came down here to find a poet. And why?

To save the city and safeguard its festival plays.

So whichever of you is able to give the city

The best advice, it’s him I’ve resolved to take back.

Tell me first the view that each of you holds about

Alkibiades. The city’s in pangs over him.”

Dionysos here links saving theater with saving the city, again speaking to the central importance placed on theater in the context of Athenian democracy. Unable to make up his mind which poet will fulfill the role of savior, Dionysos asks each to comment on Alkibiades, one of the most controversial figures in Athens. Alkibiades had been instrumental in some of Athens’ successes during the Peloponnesian war, but he had also conspired with Persia and Sparta at various points. Both poets answer somewhat obscurely: Euripides says he dislikes a man who “advances himself but hinders the city” while Aischylos warns against raising “a lion inside the city,” but if it happens, “tend to its needs” (230). Alkibiades’ motives and loyalties continue to be debated.

“DIONYSOS. By Zeus the Saviour, I just can’t choose between them!

The one spoke wisely, the other in a lucid style.”

Dionysos eventually chooses Aischylos as the contest’s winner, but this choice cannot be taken at face value, not only because Frogs is a comedy but also because Dionysos provides no explanation for his choice. It seems almost arbitrary. In this passage, Dionysos does not specify which poet spoke wisely, which “in a lucid style” (230). The assumption might be Aischylos and Euripides respectively, but Dionysos’ lack of specificity and hedging throughout the contest must also be noted.