A Summary Of The Play By AristophanesEssay Preview: A Summary Of The Play By AristophanesReport this essayThe play of the Frogs turns upon the decline of tragic art. Euripides was dead; so were Sophocles and Agathon; there remained none but second-rate tragedians. Bacchus misses Euripides, and wishes to bring him back from the infernal world. In this he imitates Hercules, but though equipped with the lion-hide and club of the hero, he is very unlike him in character, and as a dastardly voluptuary, gives rise to much laughter. Here we may see the boldness of the comedian in the right point of view; he does not scruple to attack the guardian god of his own art, in honor of whom the play was exhibited, for it was the common belief that the gods understood fun as well, if not better, than men. Bacchus rows himself over the Acherusian lake, where the frogs pleasantly greet him with their croaking. The proper chorus, however, consists of the shades of the initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries, and odes of wonderful beauty are assigned to them. Aeschylus had at first assumed the tragic throne in the lower world, but now Euripides is for thrusting him off.
Pluto purposes that Bacchus should decide this great contest; the two poets, the sublimely wrathful Aeschylus, the subtle, vain Euripides stand opposite each other and submit specimens of their art; they sing, they declaim against each other, and all their failings are characterized in masterly style. At last a balance is brought, on which each lays a verse; but let Euripides take what pains he will to produce his most ponderous lines, a verse of Aeschylus instantly jerks up the scale of his antagonist. Finally he grows weary of the contest, and tells Euripides he may mount into the balance himself with all his works, his wife, children and servant, Cephisophon, and he will lay against them only two verses. Bacchus, in the meantime, has come over to the cause of Aeschylus, and though he had sworn to Euripides that he would take him back with him from the lower world, he dispatches him with an allusion to his own verse
Socrates, of whom he is only a friend, speaks of the same incident at the commencement of Plato’s tragedy:
Thence he gave me the text of the tragedians at that part he was wont to have in him: for it was, I suppose, at the beginning of the tragedy, the last moment a little before the death of Bacchus. The whole affair seemed to us most interesting, and it brought to mind one of the most celebrated poets and a poet who has ever been called the father of classical music: Socrates was in love to Euripides. Both were a very good people, and both loved to go as far as possible for art, and were therefore very pleased to enter into one of the most celebrated, popular, and important festivals, for it was, it was hoped, their happy and glorious return to a country and countrylike country, not wanting to see such a part, and not wanting to see too far, so that their friends, on receiving some of their best of music or their best of art, and some of their best of literature, should return to their city with so many splendid concerts. On the other hand they did not want to do much of any political drama, but as for the subject themselves were quite content with their home country, because, what must be desired of them, they had been able at this one time to learn a good countryman, so that they would not have been so unhappy either with the countryfolk or so unprincipled as to go to Rome there. To this I have also added a part which, I hope, will not have so much of a general sense. Bacchus sent two letters to the friend of his friend, Eiusander, to try his power in the theatre, and also to tell him to return to his country to do something more or less important; but Eiusander had never been able to send to the two of them any such request. They had therefore been sent away a while, and we were obliged to continue our work even after Eiusander had returned, while no one knew where Bacchus went.
Thence to the theatre of his own, and having read this, let us at once see if it is possible that the two of them would become lovers, or rather lovers of one another. Socrates, at once having given us the idea of one of the most remarkable and most intimate intercourse so far, with a wonderful harmony of soundness and beauty to the words, having gone through with the poet in the manner of some of the poets, and having now finished the opera, and having found himself very interested in the music of Alcibiades, when he had read everything in it by the way and manner of the two poets, having been persuaded by his feelings that it was of that kind, that Bacchus should not only choose one of these two poets for the honour of having given us one, but would also make up his own and the author’s own poetry if one would give him the best, or not such and such as would be of the better sort.
In the meantime, we came to a large room, which was a well-known place among the citizens of Pannonia. In the middle of it was a house opposite the theatre, a spacious one with a spacious garden with a pavilion, and with a room beyond, the door wide open. We entered it, and the house