Frogs, Aeschylus Flashcards
What does Aeschylus say about Euripides’ upbringing
“you grocer’s sprout?”
“You gossip-gathering, beggar-begetthing, ripped ragmonger”
“[immediately explain the background] easier to explain than your own”
What does Aeschylus say about Euripides as a person
“cocky cripple-monger he really is”
“Thou cribber of Cretan monodies, inflicting on our art unholy marriages”- accusing E of using other peoples work
“Outrageous! you should have paid for it with your life”
“Aphrodite laid full-on siege to you and your plays. She was your downfall”
“You persuaded noble ladies…to drink hemlock because they were ashamed of your Bellerophon” (play by E)
“You wretched creature”- “you pumped-up windbag”
What does Aeschylus think about himself
“my poetry has not died with me as it has with him.”
“my plays were full of war”-“every man watching was filled with a passionate desire to fight”
“taught people to yearn for a foe to defeat, glorifying this great achievement”
“No one can say there is anything erotic in the women I have created”
How is Aeschylus comic
“Alas, I am undone!”-οimοi talas- classic tragic lament
“Dionysus, those are sour grapes you’re drinking”
How does Aristophanes make Aeschylus look intelligent
“It’s a device emblazoned on a ship, you complete ignoramus”
“Tell me this: why should we admire a poet?”… So if you fail in this… what would you say you deserve”- this technique is almost a socratic dialogue
“the weight of our phrases will prove our worth”
“If I were there I would tell you. Down here, I’d rather not”
Show that Aeschylus is competitive with Euripides
“What kind of thing did you include?”
“You want me to be quiet for him”
“See? What nonsense! But it really doesn’t bother me. What do you mean error?”
“He, on the other hand, borrows anything from brothel ballads to romantic love songs”
“You dare criticise my lyric poetry/ While using yourself the same.”
Show that Aeschylus is arrogant
“That’s what playwrights should practise”- authoritative
“But a poet should keep bad examples hidden”
“Children have teachers to instruct them, young men have poets”
“You degraded all the fine things I introduced.”
“They are an excellent choice of words”
What does Aeschylus believe about Athens
“our city’s been filled/ with petty clerks and thieving mo-monkeys/who constantly rip the people off”
“One shouldn’t raise a lion cub in the city. But once it’s grown, you’d better treat it well”-
““Who does the city listen to today? Men of honour?”- “And it likes the wicked”- “How can anyone save a city like that”
“When they consider the enemy’s land as their own: their own land as the enemy’s; when their ships show the way; a way that shows there is no other way”
Show that Aeschylus tries to outwit Euripides
“No he wasn’t, by Zeus. Misfortune was in his nature”
“I’m not going to pick away at your expressions word by word”
“With the help of the Gods and a little bottle of olive oil- I will destroy your prologues”
Explain the bottle joke
“lost his little bottle” Euripides writes “in such a way that one fits all with your iambics”- his verse is predictable.
Could be a sexual innuendo but could just be the bathetic effect of the absurdity of the household item through repetition it is funny.
Show that Aeschylus wins the weighing of phrases
“River Spercheius” - heavy as it is a river
“Death desires not gifts”- Death is a heavy evil
“Chariot on chariot, corpse on corpse”
How does Aeschylus end the play
“give my chair to Sophocles/ to watch over and keep safe/ In case I end up here again some day”- Aeschylus is unsure whether he is undergoing some sort of divine transformation (elements of mystery cult)
