The Frogs
This article is about the play by Aristophanes. The Frogs
are also a controversial rock band. See The Frogs.
The Frogs is a
comedy written by the
Ancient Greek playwright
Aristophanes. It was performed at the
Festival of Dionysus in
405 BC.
The Frogs tells the story of how the god
Dionysus, despairing of the state of Athens'
tragedians, travels to
Hades to bring
Euripides back from the dead. Traveling with his slave
Xanthias, he seeks advice from his half-brother
Heracles who had been there before in order to retrieve the hell hound
Cerberus. Dionysus shows up at his doorstep dressed in a lion-hide and carrying a club. Heracles, upon seeing the effeminate Dionysus dressed up like himself, can't help but laugh. At the question of which road is quickest to get to Hades, Heracles replies with the options of hanging yourself, drinking poison, or jumping off a tower. Dionysus opts for the longer journey across Lake Acheron, the one which Heracles took himself.
When Dionysus arrives at the lake he is ferried in
Charon's boat. Xanthias, being a slave, is not allowed in the boat and has to walk around it. Dionysus begins to hear a chorus of croaking frogs (giving the play its name). Their chant - Brekekekex ko-ax ko-ax is constantly repeated, and Dionysus joins in. When they arrive at the shore, Dionysus meets back up with Xanthias, and they get a brief scare from
Empusa. A second chorus composed of spirits of
Dionysian Mystics soon appear.
The next encounter is with
Aeacus, who mistakes Dionysus for Heracles due to his attire. Still angry over Heracles' theft of Cerberus, Aeacus threatens to go unleash several monsters on him in revenge. Scared, Dionysus trades clothes with Xanthias. A maid then arrives and is happy to see Heracles. She invites him to a feast with virgin dancing girls, and Xanthias is more than happy to oblige. But Dionysus quickly wants to trade back the clothes. Dionysus, back in the Heracles lion-skin, encounters more people angry at Heracles, and so he makes Xanthias trade a third time.
When Aeacus returns, Xanthias tells him he should torture Dionysus to obtain the truth as to whether or not he is really a thief, and he offers several brutal options in which to do it. The terrified Dionysus tells the truth that he is a god. After each is whipped, Dionysus is brought before Aeacus' masters, and the truth is verified.
Dionysus then finds Euripides in the middle of a conflict. Euripides, who had only just recently died, is challenging the great
Aeschylus to the seat of 'Best Tragic Poet' at the dinner table of Hades. A contest is held with Dionysus as judge. The two playwrights take turns quoting verses from their plays and making fun of the other. Euripides argues the characters in his plays are better because they are more true to life and logical, whereas Aeschylus believes his idealized characters are better as they are heroic and models for virtue. Aeschylus gets the upper hand in the argument, and begins making a fool of Euripides. He has Euripides quote lines from many of his
prologues, each time interjecting with "...lost his bottle of oil."
To end the debate, a balance is brought in and each are told to tell a few lines into it. Whoever's lines have the most "weight" will cause the balance to tip in their favor. Aeschylus wins, and Dionysus decides to take him back instead of Euripides. Before leaving, Aeschylus proclaims that
Sophocles should have his chair while he is gone, not Euripides.
Like any
Standup_comedy, Aristophane's characters spoke in the slang of their era. Combine this with the lack of
Stage_directions, and many fine jokes are lost to history.
Translators face the odious choice of guessing the original jokes, substituting more modern jokes, or resorting to potty humor. For example, near the beginning of the play, Xanthias claims that even though he rides a donkey, he still bears a ponderous load. Dionysus retorts the donkey bears that load too. Some translators have interpreted this to mean both Xanthias and the donkey suffer
flatulence.
A more recent reconstruction, at [
1], interprets this sequence to mean Xanthias should ride the donkey because his brain is full of ponderous thoughts. Dionysus points to the donkey's brain and retorts that its load is the same.
The Frogs musical was loosely adapted from Aristophanes' play in the 1970's, where Euripides' character was replaced by
George Bernard Shaw, and Aeschylus by
William Shakespeare. An expanded version opened on Broadway in 2004 starring
Nathan Lane and
Roger Bart, written by
Stephen Sondheim.
*
Benjamin B. Rogers, 1924 - verse:
full text*
Arthur S. Way, 1934 - verse
*
Richmond Lattimore, 1962 - verse
*
David Barret, 1964 - prose and verse
*
Matthew Dillon, 1995 - verse:
full text*
Ian Johnston, 2003 - verse:
full text*unknown translator - verse:
full text*
Phlip, 2006 -
daily webcomic*
Steven Killen et al., 2006 - prose and verse
*
The Frogs in Greek (from Perseus)
