In-depth summary of Aristophanes’ play Frogs - A* LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE
Includes quotations and a section of Modern Scholarship about the play
Very useful for revision - Includes comic techniques and explanation of key figures and context
Spartan army surrounding Athens
Naval victory at Arginusae in 406 but victory was Pyrrhic: most
victorious commanders sentenced to death, many Athenians
felt coerced by radical democrat leaders such as Theramenes
and Cleophon, slaves released after this battle
Alcibiades although he was a defector in Sparta and was in
exile, still was recognised as Athens’ most capable general and
statesmen
Advice on treatment of the oligarchs who were disenfranchised
after democracy’s return in 410
Aristophanes’ parabasis is thought to be the reason the play
got the privilege of a second performance in 404
Sophocles’ death in 406 meant the play had to be slightly
rewritten
o Aeschylus’ plays already a mainstay of the tragic canon -
he was the only playwright known to have his plays
produced posthumously - Aeschylus was never
associated with the avant grade or radicalism, as
someone who was a general and politician, he embodied
more traditional values
Aeschylus and Euripides had already competed in 468 when
Sophocles beat Aeschylus with his first performed play
Act One
Xanthias and Dionysus appear on stage - (Dionysus in padding,
yellow negligee, lion skin and club, Xanthias riding a donkey
while carrying luggage) - speaking about which jokes they can
say and getting annoyed with each other
‘Do you mean to say that I’ve been lugging these props around, but
I’m not allowed to use them to get a laugh? That’s what usually
happens. Phrynichus, Lycis, Ameipisias - all the popular playwrights
do it. The comic porter scene.’ Metatheatricality
‘son of Juice’ Wordplay
‘I don’t get it.
That’s because I’ve got it.’ Wordplay
‘If only I’d been in that sea battle, I’d be a free man now.’ Context
, Dionysus approaches Heracles’ house and asks him for advice
on how to get to the underworld + we learn that Dionysus
wants to bring back Euripides
‘Saw a bit of action, I expect, one way or another.’ Sexual humour +
reference to Cleisthenes (notorious homosexual)
‘A big urge?’ Sexual humour
‘When do I not have a craving for pea soup?’
‘One who can produce something truly original like ‘Ether bedsit of
Zeus’ or ‘the tread of time’ Literary Parody
‘Any useful contacts down there: where you get the boat, how to
find the best restaurants, bakeries, boozers, knocking shops and
which places have the fewest creepy crawlies’
‘It would be a pain in the neck. … Now you’re giving me cold feet!’
‘Or punched their fathers on the jaw, or committed perjury, or
copied out a speech by Morsimus’ Comic deflation
Heracles presented as a common crook
Dionysus tries to ask a corpse to take down the luggage to the
underworld
‘I’d sooner live again! Wordplay
Well of all the stuck-up people I hope he comes to a bad end.’ Irony
Parody of porter at hotel
Dionysus gets in Charon’s boat but Xanthias isn’t allowed so he
has to walk around the marsh - Dionysus needs to help row the
boat
‘Charon couldn’t care less.’
‘Anyone for Lethe, Oblivion, Perdition or the dogs?’
‘Not unless they’ve fought in the sea battle.’
‘I didn’t say on the oar fatso!’
Parody of someone like bus driver or train master calling out stops
Dionysus confronted by the chorus of frogs and placed
in a mock physical agon with them
‘I’m so raw! I’m so sore! And what’s more - there are blisters here -
all over my rear - where I’ve never had blisters before.’
Dionysus and Charon arrive on land, encounter Empusa and
the initiates of the Eleusinian mysteries who eventually tell
them how to get to Pluto’s palace
‘Ah yes those two obols.’ Inflation joke
‘(Looking towards the audience) - murderers and perjurers
Breaking 4th wall
(Appealing to the priest of Dionysus who is sitting in the front row)
for protection from Empusa - ‘Remember that drink we’re going to
have after the show!’
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