Frogs Summary Flashcards
Prologue: Lines 1-315
Describe briefly what happens in the Prologue lines 1-315
- Dionysus & Xanthias embark on a journey
- Advice is given from Hercales
- Negotiating the passage across the marsh to underworld
- Dionysus encounters the frogs
- Dionysus & Xanthias are reunited
Prologue: Lines 1-315
How does the play start
- Dionysus appears on stage dressed as a parody of Heracles, together with a slave, weighed down by baggage, and a donkey
- After a stand-up routine about not making the audience laugh with old, familiar baggage jokes,
- Dionysus reveals that he is on his way to Heracles for advice on a journey to the underworld
Prologue: Lines 1-315
What happens when Dionysus talks to Heracles
- Dionysus tells Heracles that he wants to go there to bring back Euripides because there are no good poets still alive.
- His appearance and plan cause Heracles great amusement and he teases Dionysus with his advice.
- He tells him what to expect.
Prologue: Lines 1-315
What happens after Dionysus encounters Heracles
- After a brief encounter with a corpse who refuses to take all the baggage, Dionysus crosses the marsh on Charon’s boat.
- Charon makes Xanthias take the long way round.
Prologue: Lines 1-315
What happens on Dionysus’ journey to the underworld
- On the journey, a subsidiary Chorus of Frogs engage in a short singing contest with Dionysus, as Charon makes him row across
Prologue: Lines 1-315
How does the prologue end
- After Dionysus and Xanthias are reunited on the other side, they encounter a shape-changing monster.
- Dionysus is seen to be a coward.
- They hear the Chorus of Initiates approaching.
Prologue: Lines 1-315
Name the various types of humour which occur in the prologue
- self-mockery
- visual humour
- topical humour
- surreal humour
- word play
- scatological
- mockery (playwrights, aristocrats)
Parados 316-459
What type of chorus is it
Chorus of Initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries
Parados 316-459
What context can help us understand why the chorus change the mood
- The chorus may have brought a touch of nostalgia;
- while the Spartans occupied Decelea in 413 BC,
- the annual Eleusinian procession in September had to be suspended
Parados 316-459
What do the Chorus of initates repeatedly shout
Iacchus!
Parados 316-459
What is the significance of Iacchus being shouted
- The name of this youthful Eleusinian god who led the Initiates carrying a torch,
- is derived from the joyous cry ‘iacche’
- His image was carried from Athens to Eleusis in the procession
- Dionysus or Bacchus is sometimes also called by this name, like in the Bacchae L725, hence this could be perceived as quite ironic
Parados 316-459
What feature does Aristophanes employ that emphasises the importance of the chorus
- the unusual stage direction for pipes to be played, which is not generally included
Parados 316-459
- Describe the features of the ritual dance that the Initates begin with
- dancing
- the wearing of flower crowns & garlands
- rhythmic stamping of feet
Parados 316-459
- In what way do the initates & Dionysus play on the focus of their worship
- references to Pigs:
- The sacrifice of a piglet formed part of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the Thesmophoria
- Here Aristophanes plays on nostalgia
Parados 316-459
- What do the chorus then emphasise about their worship by referencing light
- That members of the cult have known to see the light in the underworld; & also members would have worshipped nocturnally
Parados 316-459
- How do the chorus then reflect the inclusivity of the Mysteries worship
- The Mysteries were inclusive in a way not typical of Athenian society, welcoming women and men, young and old, Athenian and foreigner, but not those who had shed blood
- Aristophanes’ extended joke lists others who should stand aside
Parados 316-459
- Who do the Initates attack
- Cratinus - A comic playwright who dominated the genre before Aristophanes
- Audience members recipient of the cheap laughs
- Demogogues & Politicans (edp. those involved in Argiunsae)
- Piracy & wartime profiteering
- Himself - for being so critical
Parados 316-459
- In what way do the Chorus lean on the Gods here
- The Initiates sing of a female saviour, who might be Athene, Persephone or Demeter, but it is certainly to Demeter that they pray for safety in lines 387-9.
- Thorycion is named and shamed at line 363 against a general backdrop of wartime corruption and profiteering, which breaks the 4th wall, emphasisng how the audience should too
Parados 316-459
- How do the cults of Dionysus & Demeter mirror eachother here
- Humour and playfulness abound in this Chorus
- The Greek verb paizein - to act childishly - occurs many times & on the procession from Athens to Eleusis was the river Cephissus
- ritual insult and mockery indulged in by participants as they crossed (we also learn this was a long walk - 22km)
Parados 316-459
- Amongst a plethora of smutty humour, which politicans are violated
- Archedemus
- Cleisthenes
- Callias
- Hippocinus
Parados 316-459
- Why must Aristophane’s be cautious when demonstrating the Eleusinian Mysteries
- Aristophanes might have risked angering people in this parodos and in an earlier play Thesmophoriazusae (411 BC)
- Ten years before Frogs was first performed, a group of young aristocrats including Alcibiades had been charged with profaning the Mysteries, a case that had far-reaching implications for Athens
Parados 316-459
At the end of the Parados, how does Aristophane’s present the value of the chorus for driving the plot
- The Chorus have just advised Dionysus and Xanthias that they’ve reached Hades’ front door
- They are pious & undiscriminating with who they help, thus driving the plot, diluted with confused characters
Episode 1: Preliminary Encounters in the Underworld (460-674)
Who is Dionysus dressed as in the following scenes
Heracles
Episode 1: Preliminary Encounters in the Underworld (460-674)
- What is Aeacus’ response to seeing Dionysus dressed as Hercales
- immediately believes that he is seeing the real Heracles returning to the underworld
- he appears as an over-excitable doorman who takes disturbing pleasure in listing the punishments in store to Dionysus & Xanthias