A2 Unit CC9 F389 - Comic Drama in the Ancient World
Summary
Summary Frogs - Aristophanes Greek Theatre Notes for A-Level OCR
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A2 Unit CC9 F389 - Comic Drama in the Ancient World
Institution
OCR
A* notes on Frogs with a summary of plot and reception, all characters and themes including:
- Nature of Theatre
- Use of Comedy
- Value of Tragedy
- Politics
- Old vs. New
- Religion and the gods
- Slaves and Masters
- Women and Femininity
- Identity
- Life and Death
- Punishment and ...
A2 Unit CC9 F389 - Comic Drama in the Ancient World
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Frogs – Aristophanes (first performed 405 BC)
Frogs – Play
Plot
- Dionysus, despairing at the state of Athens’ tragedians, travels to Hades to bring Euripides (who died in 406
BC) back from the dead. He brings with him Xanthias who, when the play opens, is arguing with him over
what kind of jokes Xanthias can use to open the play.
o He seeks advice from Heracles, showing up on his doorstep dressed as him (but effeminate). Heracles
says the quickest routes to Hades are hanging, poison, or jumping off a tower but the longer way is
across a lake.
- When Dionysus arrives at the lake, Charon ferries him across. Xanthias (as a slave) is not allowed in the
boat and has to walk around it, while Dionysus is made to help row the boat.
- Parados choral interlude sung by frog chorus (the only scene in which frogs feature in the play). Their
croaking refrain annoys Dionysus who engages in a mocking debate (agon) with the frogs.
- When he arrives at the shore, Dionysus meets up with Xanthias who teases him by claiming to see an
Empusa.
- A second chorus composed of spirits of Dionysian Mystics soon appear.
- The next encounter is with Aeacus, who mistakes Dionysus for Heracles and is angry over Heracles’ theft
of Cerberus.
o Frightened, Dionysus trades clothes with Xanthias.
o A maid then arrives and is happy to see Heracles – invites him to a feast with dancing girls. (Now
Dionysus wants to trade back but when he does he encounters more people angry at Heracles and so
trades a third time).
- When Aeacus returns to confront the alleged Heracles, Xanthias offers him his “slave” (Dionysus) for
torturing to obtain the truth over whether is a thief. Dionysus then says he is a god and they are both
whipped to work out who is the god.
o Dionysus is then brought before Aeacus’ masters and the truth is verified.
- The maid then catches Xanthias and chats him up, describing the Euripides-Aeschylus conflict over who
deserves the seat of “Best Tragic Poet” at the dinner table of Pluto, the ruler of the underworld.
o A contest is held with Dionysus as judge.
- The two playwrights take turns quoting verses from their plays and making funs of the other.
o Euripides argues the characters in his plays are better because they are more true to life and logical
whereas Aeschylus believes his idealised characters are better as they are heroic and models for virtue.
o Aeschylus mocks Euripide’ verse as formulaic by having Euripides quote lines from his prologues and
interrupting with “lost his little flask of oil”.
Euripides counters by demonstrating the alleged monotony of Aeschylus’ choral songs,
parodying excerpts from his work.
Aeschylus mocks Euripides’ choral meters and lyric monodies with castanets.
- Dionysus redeems himself from being the butt of the joke, ruling the stage, adjudicating the squabbles
fairly, breaking up prolonged rants and demonstrating a deep understanding of Greek tragedy.
- To end the debate a balance is brought in and they are told to tell a few lines with the winner carrying more
“weight”.
o Aeschylus wins, but Dionysus is unable to decide whom he will revive.
- He decides to take the poet who gives the best advice about how to save the city.
o Euripides gives cleverly worded but essentially meaningless answers, while Aeschylus provides more
practical advice so Dionysus decides to take him.
Pluto allows Aeschylus to return to life and invites everyone to a round of farewell drinks.
Before leaving, Aeschylus proclaims that Sophocles should have his chair in his absence, not
Euripides.
Reception
- First performed at the Lenaia in 405 BC where it received first place.
- Kenneth Dover sees the underlying political theme as “old ways good, new ways bad”
- Charles Paul Segal argues that Frogs is unique in its structure because it combines two forms of comic
motifs – a journey motif and an agon motif, with each motif given equal weight.
, Frogs – Characters
Dionysus
- Femininity
o Heracles: “A lion-skin over a yellow negligee!” (ll. 46)
Alludes to Women at Thesmophoria description of a “girlish man”
o Dionysus: “I climbed aboard Cleisthenes’ vessel” (ll. 47)
C = well-known effeminate man
- Simple-minded
o Misperception of himself
Mistakes Heracles laughing at Dionysus as fear.
o Slave to his appetites
Xanthias says the empusa is a woman and D demands to be let past to see her.
Talking about a woman: D: “being a sociable sort, I wouldn't mind sporting with her myself”
o Fickle
Euripides criticises Aeschylus’ openings and D says “I rather enjoyed the old silent days”
E: “That’s because you were stupid then.”//D: “I think you’re right.”
o Stupid - (ll. 1169) Dionysus: “Ingenious! Though I’m not sure what you mean.”
- Cowardly
o When Dionysus arrives on the other side of the river he looks anxiously about for “Murderers and
perjurers”
o Appears confident and dismissive of Heracles’ warnings - “One ought to slay a beast or two on a trip
like this” but he hears a noise and instantly “[Panicking]”
o Dionysus’s robes have “turned brown with fear” after he sees the empusa.
o D: “Heracles the b-b-b-bold”
- Appreciation of theatre
o Dionysus is reading the Andromeda
o He references many comic and tragic playwrights.
o Around line 100 quotes many different excerpts from other plays
Xanthias
- Typical name for a slave - “Blondie” - but he is used to subvert and challenge normal roles
- Generally brave:
o Xanthias tells the empusa to “Be gone”
- Slave to his appetites:
o X: “what a wonderful smell of pork!” (ll. 335)
References the smell of pigs sacrificed during the initiation rituals but is also a double-entendre
for the female genitalia.
o Jumps to join Persephones’ serving girl when she mentions dancing girls for him
Aeschylus
- Aeschylus as successful before the play
o The slave tells Xanthias how Aeschylus was clearly the best before Euripides died and had claim to
“his own chair of honour” near Pluto.
o Achilles imagery: ‘Helmeted, crested and plumed, from the lips of the poet most high’
- Presentation of Aeschylus’ style:
o Euripides: “All that rugged grandeur - it’s all so uncultivated and unrestrained. [...] Just a torrent of
verbiage, stiffened with superlatives and padded out with pretentious polysyllables.”
o Have stood the test of time:
Aeschylus: “My plays have outlived me so I don’t have them to hand down here.”
After his death his plays were granted the unique distinction of being eligible for
reperformance in the tragic competition against the work of living tragedians.
o Full of unnecessary suspense for characters to speak.
Long speeches: E: “A dozen bulldozing phrases, fearsome things with crests and beetling brows.
[...] But of course, nobody knew what it meant.”
o The chorus say Aeschylus writes good lyrics “I know a good song when I hear it”
o Euripides suggests that Aeschylus’ lyrics are repetitive as well as his words.
Repeats numerous instances of “Ai, ai, I’m stuck!”
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