Aristophanes’ Frogs
Drama to the Rescue…
Agenda
• Drama in Performance 1
– Frog Chorus (pp. 106 ff.)
• Aristophanes’ Frogs
– Background, Structure, Themes, etc.
• Drama in Performance 2: “To Hit or not to
Hit…”
– A Serious Side to Drubbing? Or, What Would
Plato Say?
Drama in Performance 1
Frog Chorus (pp. 106 ff.)
Frog Chorus … the Point??
• add to setting
• Charon says frogs
help him to row
• making d mad
• interact – have say in
what’s going on
• let us sing!
– thematically significant
– foreshadowing
» forbidding frogs
• invading frogs home
– trespasser
• serious place
– comic relief
• satire
– makes fun of dio every
chances gets
• not frightening
– yet threaten d
Aristophanes’ Frogs
Background, Structure, Themes, etc.
Background
Historical
• Production
– 405 BCE
– Lenaea (Jan/Feb)
– 1st prize, crown, encore
• Politics etc.
– 413 Sicilian disaster
– 411 exile of oligarchs
– 405
» material pressures
» military uncertainties
» political tension
– 404
» final defeat
» democracy dissolved
Religious
• Dionysian festival
• mystery (Eleusinian)
evocations
– Demeter, Persephone,
Iacchos-Dionysos
– ritual insult
– Chorus of Initiates
» us???
Dramatic
• Aischylos, Sophokles,
Euripides, Agathon dead
• Dionysos “yearning”
• Athens bereft, desperate
Analysis
• prologue (pp. 90 ff.)
•
– lyric dialogues. Chorus, D, X.
Warning, fear, etc.
– Aiakos, D, X. Drubbing scene
– Xanthias, Dionysus, Herakles,
Corpse, Charon
• choral dialogue 1 (106)
– Frog Chorus (off-stage),
Dionysus
• scene (109)
•
– lyric, chanting, dialogue. Mystic
Chorus of initiates, D, X. hymn D,
sex, personal abuse
•
• scene (124)
– dialogue, lyric. Chorus, D.
Persephone’s invite to
“Herakles.”
– Barmaid, Plathane, X, D.
Deadbeat “Herakles”
scene (135)
– Pluto’s servant, X. Slave dialogue:
trouble in Hades
•
choral ode (140)
– tragic parody: consternation over
poetic quarrel. (agōn prelude)
•
AGŌNES (141-175)
– Euripides v. Aischylos. Chorus, Pluto.
Contest in tragic poetry
• scene (119)
– D, X, Aiakos, Maid. Door comedy
parabasis (133)
– advice to the city
– Charon, D, X (Empusa)
• parodos (114)
scene (cont.)
•
exodos
– Pluto, Aischylos, Chorus. Farewell
“Are You Serious?”: “Comic Formula” &
(serio?)-Comic Theme
• Plot contours
– Return of Hephaestus
– Aristophanes’ Frogs
Return of Hephaestus
“To Hit or not to Hit…”
A Serious Side to Drubbing? Or,
What Would Plato Say?
Drubbing Scene (pp. 127 ff.)
• Aiakos
– gatekeeper of Hades
• Dionysus
– god of drama
• Xanthias
– Dio’s slave
The Three Stooges
What Would Plato Say?
Positive
• Herakles is getting
his just deserts
• the punishment of an
imposter!!
– of impious
impersonation
Negative
• gods should not be
seen in lesser form
• threat to the social
structure
• Hubristic ambiguity
– issue with the forms
» glorification of
masks/costumes