Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Frogs
    The Frogs
    The Frogs
    Ebook126 pages1 hour

    The Frogs

    By Aristophanes

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1908
    Author

    Aristophanes

    Aristophanes (446–386 BCE) was a Greek comedy writer, who produced about 40 plays throughout his career. His work was the embodiment of “Old Comedy”—an early form of the genre that used exaggerated characters and scenarios. Aristophanes’ first play, The Banqueters, was produced in 427 BCE, quickly followed by The Babylonians. His most famous production, Lysistrata, was initially performed in 411 BCE and centers on one woman’s attempt to end a war by holding a sex strike. Due to his sensationalized plots and vibrant characters, Aristophanes is considered one of the architects of Greek comedy.

    Read more from Aristophanes

    Related authors

    Related to The Frogs

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The multiverse of Sarah J. Maas

      Feb 17, 2024

      The multiverse of Sarah J. Maas
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Spoils Of War

      Sep 3, 2021

      The Spoils Of War
      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘Quichotte’ Retells ‘Don Quixote’ For Chaotic Modern Times

      Sep 3, 2019

      Salman Rushdie’s messy novel pulls in everything from the opioid crisis and white supremacist violence to “Pinocchio” and reality TV.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Deconstructing Myths And Male Influence In ‘Fruit Of The Drunken Tree’

      Jul 31, 2018

      When I was a child growing up in Guatemala during the Civil War, my mom took me to play at my friend’s house late one night. She told me not to ask any questions. “Just play,” she said. While our mothers sat downstairs talking in hushed voices, my fr

      5 min read

    • Article

      Guatemala

      Jun 18, 2020

      A parade of security guards on Guatemala City’s Fifth Avenue dangle scary-looking shotguns. What they protect are not banks nor casinos, but humble stationery shops. Guatemala, once among the world’s most violent countries, has halved its murder rate

      2 min read

    • Article

      André Aciman.

      Nov 1, 2019

      Just when you thought you were over that emotional final scene of Elio Perlman – played by Timothée Chalamet – intensely sobbing into the fire at the end of Call Me By Your Name, the book’s author André Aciman is back with a sequel to transport you b

      11 min read

    • Article

      Competition

      Jul 27, 2022

      IN COMPETITION NO 282 you were invited to write a poem with the title Unpacking. Basil Ransome-Davies, in a poem on the wars between sonic (pretty-sounding) and confessional poets, made me laugh with the couplet ‘Confessionals unpack their hearts, /

      2 min read

    • Article

      Jan Morris

      Jun 15, 2018

      I have always rather envied the poet Ovid, who was banished from Rome by the emperor Augustus, you may remember, to a remote place called Tomis on the shores of the Black Sea. There he died, ten years later, and his exile has gone into legend and int

      17 min read

    • Article

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work

      Dec 15, 2018

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work
      6 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2019

      What you called a cloud was not a cloud. I am in hell here. Hell is a partywhere I don’t sing, and don’t dance, and someone turns to me and says, “Youare a very pretty girl. Don’t ever forget that.” I spend all night tramping up and down the staircas

      2 min read

    • Article

      Seven Poems

      May 1, 2022

      Seven Poems
      2 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      Dear C, At first Virgil’s poem is quite dull; equivocalnames of products at The Container Store: Elfa White Medium Drawer, Mesh NarrowRolling Cart (Medium Solution), Narrow Classic Mesh Box and the number of pirouetting starseach product attained. An

      5 min read

    • Article

      Meet Your New Favorite Poet

      Feb 20, 2019

      Meet Your New Favorite Poet
      6 min read

    • Article

      Spellcheck

      Jan 1, 2019

      Whose history I do not know. I do know I’ve been e-upbraided for my fast and loose spelling of Woden, the god whose last worshipper must have slipped under the sod during the medieval period, somewhere in the 10th century—imagine those bog-soaked des

      5 min read

    Reviews for The Frogs

    3.5/5

    87 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A classical Greek comedy about Dionysus travelling to the underworld to bring back Aeschylus.
    • 2/5
      It's funny if you know the history and like bawdy jokes.
    • 3/5
      While parts of this play were opaque to me (I assume references to other classical Greek plays that I have not read), other sections were quite amusing. I particularly enjoyed the fight between Aeschylus and Euripides for the position of best (dead) writer of tragedy!

    Book preview

    The Frogs - Aristophanes

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Frogs, by Aristophanes

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: The Frogs

    Author: Aristophanes

    Editor: Charles W. Eliot

    Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7998] This file was first posted on June 10, 2003 Last updated: May 7, 2013

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FROGS ***

    Produced by Ted Garvin, Marvin A. Hodges, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

    THE FROGS OF ARISTOPHANES

    By Aristophanes

    The Harvard Classics

    Edited By Charles W Eliot Lld

    Nine Greek Dramas

    By Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides And Aristophanes

    Translations By

      E D A Morshead

      E H Plumptre

      Gilbert Murray

      And

      B B Rogers

    With Introductions And Notes

    VOLUME 8

    INTRODUCTORY NOTE

    Aristophanes, _the greatest of comic writers in Greek and in the opinion of many, in any language, is the only one of the Attic comedians any of whose works has survived in complete form He was born in Athens about the middle of the fifth century B C, and had his first comedy produced when he was so young that his name was withheld on account of his youth. He is credited with over forty plays, eleven of which survive, along with the names and fragments of some twenty-six others. His satire deal with political, religious, and literary topics, and with all its humor and fancy is evidently the outcome of profound conviction and a genuine patriotism. The Attic comedy was produced at the festivals of Dionysus, which were marked by great license, and to this, rather than to the individual taste of the poet, must be ascribed the undoubted coarseness of many of the jests. Aristophanes seems, indeed, to have been regarded by his contemporaries as a man of noble character. He died shortly after the production of his Plutus, in 388 B. C.

    The Frogs was produced the year after the death of Euripides, and laments the decay of Greek tragedy which Aristophanes attributed to that writer. It is an admirable example of the brilliance of his style, and of that mingling of wit and poetry with rollicking humor and keen satirical point which is his chief characteristic. Here, as elsewhere, he stands for tradition against innovation of all kinds, whether in politics, religion, or art. The hostility to Euripides displayed here and in several other plays, like his attacks on Socrates, is a result of this attitude of conservatism. The present play is notable also as a piece of elaborate if not over-serious literary criticism from the pen of a great poet._

    THE FROGS OF ARISTOPHANES

    DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

    THE GOD DIONYSUS

    XANTHIAS, his slave

    AESCHYLUS

    EURIPIDES

    HERACLES

    PLUTO

    CHARON AEACUS, house porter to Pluto

    A CORPSE

    A MAIDSERVANT OF PERSEPHONE

    A LANDLADY IN HADES

    PLATHANE, her servant

    A CHORUS OF FROGS

    A CHORUS OF INITIATED PERSONS

    _Attendants at a Funeral;

    Women worshipping Iacchus;

    Servants of Pluto, &c._

    *****

    XANTHIAS

      Shall I crack any of those old jokes, master,

      At which the audience never fail to laugh?

      DIONYSUS. Aye, what you will, except I'm getting crushed: Fight shy

      of that: I'm sick of that already.

    XAN. Nothing else smart?

    DIO. Aye, save my shoulder's aching.

    XAN. Come now, that comical joke?

      DIO. With all my heart. Only be careful not to shift your pole,

      And—

    XAN. What?

    DIO. And vow that you've a bellyache.

      XAN. May I not say I'm overburdened so

      That if none ease me, I must ease myself?

    DIO. For mercy's sake, not till I'm going to vomit.

    XAN.

      What! must I bear these burdens, and not make

      One of the jokes Ameipsias and Lycis

      And Phrynichus, in every play they write,

      Put in the mouths of all their burden-bearers?

    DIO.

      Don't make them; no! I tell you when I see

      Their plays, and hear those jokes, I come away

      More than a twelvemonth older than I went.

    XAN.

      O thrice unlucky neck of mine, which now

      Is getting crushed, yet must not crack its joke!

    DIO.

      Now is not this fine pampered insolence

      When I myself, Dionysus, son of—Pipkin,

      Toil on afoot, and let this fellow ride,

      Taking no trouble, and no burden bearing?

    XAN. What, don't I bear?

    DIO. How can you when you're riding?

    XAN. Why, I bear these.

    DIO. How?

    XAN. Most unwillingly.

    DIO. Does not the donkey bear the load you're bearing?

    XAN. Not what I bear myself: by Zeus, not he.

    DIO. How can you bear, when you are borne yourself?

    XAN. Don't know: but anyhow my shoulder's aching.

    DIO.

      Then since you say the donkey helps you not,

      You lift him up and carry him in turn.

    XAN.

      O hang it all! why didn't I fight at sea?

      You should have smarted bitterly for this.

    DIO.

      Get down, you rascal; I've been trudging on

      Till now I've reached the portal, where I'm going

      First to turn in.

      Boy! Boy! I say there, Boy!

    HERACLES.

      Who banged the door? How like a prancing Centaur

      He drove against

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1