Frogs - Key Quotations, Critical Quotations and Facts

What is the Greek name of this play?

Batrachoi

Aristophanes immediately introducing the double act and breaking the fourth wall

‘Should I tell one of the usual, sir? One the audience always laughs at?’

Immediate scatological humour - ‘the humour of excretion seems to belong to all cultures’ (Dover)

‘not, ‘I’m feeling the pressure’

Joke about bodily functions

‘Wait until I really have to puke’

Mocking other comics for their predictable routines

‘Lycis and Ameipsias always have baggage-handling routines’

Comedy through the use of tragic language

‘Oh thrice ill-fated shoulders!’

Dionysus bathetically introduces himself as ?

Contrasts his introduction as ‘son of Zeus’ in Frogs

‘son of Flagon’

Reference to Arginusae to serve as catharsis (Aristotle)

‘Why didn’t I fight in that sea-battle!’

Dionysus being associated with gender transgression - contrasts him being born of the ‘thigh’ of Zeus

‘little yellow number’

Dionysus mixing male and female imagery - Herculean…

‘boots and club’ and ‘little yellow number’

Homophobic joke

‘Well, you were with Cleisthenes’

Bathetic joke relating to Heracles’ appetite; asking if he’s ever felt

‘a sudden craving for lentil soup?’

Sexual or cannibalistic desire for Euripides

‘such a craving consumes me - for Euripides’

Euripides versus Sophocles

‘Euripides is a complete crook’, ‘Sophocles is completely easy-going’

‘Empowerment of the little person’ (Dover)

‘No mention of me!’

Joke about Dionysus’ status as the god of wine

‘I’m no walk-aholic’

Tongue twister which displays the actor’s skill

‘that would make mincemeat of my medulla’

Xanthias’ excuse for not fighting at Arginusae - most commonly attested ailment for being ineligble

‘I happened to have a bit of an eye infection’

Comedy of insult

‘Your seat’s here, fatty’

How is the Chorus of Frogs’ ‘Bre-ke-ke-kex, co-ax, co-ax’ described by Charon (ironically or not)?

‘amazing melodies’

Dionysus’ words commence the first agon between himself and the Chorus of Frogs

‘you’ll never beat me’

The most meta-theatrical line

‘Priest, save me - I’ll get you a drink after the show!’

Pious image the Chorus of Initiates uses to associate Dionysiac worship with radiance

‘blazing with brightness’

The CoI ‘starts up the singing’ for their

‘all-night revels’

Imagery intended to titillate the male members of the audience

‘A little booby peeped out’

Xenophobic joke - ‘Something about this bed bugs me …

‘Is there a Corinthian in there?’

The Chorus of Initiates teaching a lesson of piety

‘We are the initiates, our ways are pious’

Climax of scatological humour. After being threatened by Aeacus, Dionysus says:

‘I’ve made a craprifice’

‘A subject needs the opportunity to assert himself by ridiculing the ruler’ (Dover)

‘You are the most cowardly of gods - and men.’

Masturbatory humour

‘buffing my chick-pea’

Infantilisation of Dionysus; when urging Xanthias to assume the Heracles disguise out of fear of Pandoceutria

‘Xanthy Wanthy’

Nonsensical expression of pain during an agon won by proving oneself incapable of feeling pain

‘Could you pull this splinter out for me?’

What two things does the Chorus introduce an analogy between?

The quality of political leaders and of coinage

How does Dionysus describe the agon between Aeschylus and Euripides?

‘the contest of cleverness’

One line encapsulating why Euripides loses the agon and does not get brought back to life

‘I pray to other gods’ (‘New currency’)

Insult Aeschylus issues against Euripides to accuse him of impiety

‘you enemy of the gods’

Argument for Euripides’ plays being better

‘my drama was democratic’, ‘wisdom I introduced to them’

Argument for Aeschylus’ plays being better

‘The Seven Against Thebes. Every man watching was filled with a passionate desire to fight.’

Dionysus casually (and anti-climatically) declaring Aeschylus the winner

‘I’ll take Aeschylus.’

Pluto instructs Aeschylus to

‘save our city with your good advice. Educate those fools’

Final lines of the play urging in an era of peace

‘May our great troubles (…) End completely.’

Bakola says that Aeschylus and Euripides are presented as

‘caricatures’

Bettendorf - ‘The primary function of the play, is not literary criticism but

political action’