12/29/2023 0 Comments Save the frogs poetry contestSo begins Frogs, one of Aristophanes's greatest comedies and an exemplar of Old Attic Comedy. When the frogs depart, he yells that they will never beat him at the "koax" (the croaking word) and he will vanquish them. Dionysus says his butt hurts and he wants them to stop singing, but they sing louder about hopping and swimming.ĭionysus finally bellows along with them in the spirit of competition. They respond that the Muses, Pan, and Apollo cherish them. Dionysus, still disguised as Heracles, mocks them. This was a song they once sung for Dionysus, or Nysean son of Zeus. Charon refuses to take Xanthias because he is a slave, so he takes an alternate route and plans to meet Dionysus at the Withering Stone.Ĭharon tells Dionysus to help row, and informs him that they will soon hear the songs of the Frog Swans.Ī chorus of frogs enters, and leaps around the boat, singing nonsense words like croaks. Charon asks where they are going, and Dionysus replies, "To the buzzards!" (34). They cannot agree on a sum, and Dionysus curses him.Ĭharon rows his boat over and he and Dionysus greet each other. Dionysus asks if they want to haul bags to Hades, and one asks how much they will be paid. Pleased, Dionysus tells Xanthias to get the baggage again and prepare to go. They are the Initiates and will tell him everything he needs to know. Then he will hear pipes and see sunshine, and men and women will be there. He will then see innumerable frightful beasts, then a river of flowing excrement, then people guilty of all manner of terrible things. First, he will come to a large lake and will be ferried across by a mariner. Dionysus rejects all these and says he plans to go the same way Heracles went. Heracles begins to suggest options for death, offering up hanging and poison and jumping off a building. Despite Heracles's objections to his plan, Dionysus persists. There are no "potent" poets left (28).Īfter some gentle ribbing, Dionysus tells Heracles he has come to figure out how to find the friends of his that time he went after Cerberus, and all the places to stay along the way. Heracles asks if there are other poets here that might suffice, but Dionysus rejects them as "cast-offs and merely empty chatter" (28). In the meantime, Xanthias complains further about his shoulder. Agathon, Xenocles, and Pythangelus are also inadequate. He rejects Iophen because he is unsure, and Sophocles is too mild. He says his longing is for Euripides, even though he is dead, and states that "Nobody on earth can persuade me not / to go after him." He plans to go down to Hades because he needs a talented poet there is no one living that is good. Heracles teases him about this, but Dionysus tells him not to jest. He asks Dionysus where he has been, and the latter says he was serving topside with Cleisthenes (the latter often teased for homosexuality). He sees Dionysus and begins to laugh, amused at the lion skin getup Dionysus is wearing. Heracles opens it, wondering who is banging so loudly. Dionysus tells Xanthias to dismount, and knocks. Xanthias complains that he wants to do what others, like the playwrights Lycis and Ameipsias and Phrynichus can do –hump the baggage.ĭionysus scolds Xanthias for complaining, and they banter about whether the donkey or Xanthias is truly bearing the load of the baggage. Xanthias suggests Dionysus say something amusing to make the audience laugh, and they joke about Xanthias shifting the baggage so he can relieve himself. Dionysus is disguised as Hercules and Xanthias rides a donkey with the baggage.
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