19/2/07 - Classical Literature - Aristophanes: The Frogs (1)

Summary of plot:

Prologos: Xanthias, Dionysus' slave, rides a donkey while he himself is laden down with parcels, and asks his master if he would like "one of my jokes", i.e. old gags, including farts and low buffoonery. Dionysus, dressed half as a woman, half as Heracles, says he would like something wittier, and gripes about the current crop of comic poets. The pair come to a door and knock: Heracles opens it and collapses in laughter at the sight of Dionysus.
Dionysus explains his plan: while serving in the navy, he read the Andromeda of Euripides, and was struck with longing to have him back (Euripides died the year before). He proposes to descend to the underworld and fetch him. "Why not Sophocles?" asks Heracles. (Sophocles had also passed away recently.) "He's contented anywhere"; plus, Dionysus wants somebody 'generative/seminal', i.e. really creative. Heracles is sceptical, but agrees to help Dionysus 'go to hell'. Dionysus and Xanthias set out.

Episodes: They try, unsuccessfully, to hire a corpse to help with the baggage.
Charon the ferryman teaches Dionysus how to row, while Xanthias has to walk around the lake (the Athenians were all accomplished sailors, so Dionysus will have seemed particularly inept).
The Frog chorus? Probably only heard behind the scene, not seen. The chorus degenerates into a shouting match with Dionysus.
Dionysus considers whether he should try to slay some monster, like Heracles, but runs away, and soils himself.

Parodos: The chorus enter as the procession of Mystic Initiates of Eleusis, and combine the usual cry of "Begone profane" (=non-initiates) and a parabasis-like call to rid the city of various miscreants. The women also have a song. (The Mysteries were an important civic cult which promised its initiates survival in the afterlife.) Xanthias asks them for the location of Pluto's house.

More episodes: Dionysus and Xanthias knock on the door. Aeacus, one of the underworld judges, promises to repay Heracles (i.e. the disguised Dionysus) for the damage he caused on his last visit. Dionysus urges Xanthias to trade costumes, but then a maid announces that Persephone is laying out a feast for Heracles, so they trade again. Two landladies enter to sue for damages and Aeacus returns with some help. Both Xanthias and Dionysus claim to be gods, and Xanthias proposes that they settle the matter by a test of pain endurance, which proves inconclusive. They both go in.

Parabasis: The chorus pleads for reconciliation. The poet/chorus leader praises the decision to enfranchise the slaves for Arginusae, and thinks it all the more reason to let all exiles return. The analogy of the old and new coinage: the good coins of old are out of circulation (i.e. the old elite) and we now use cheap copper coins. But let us now use the good again.

Second start: (the expository features of this scene mark a second beginning to the play, and the scene itself introduces a completely new theme: the contest for the chair of Poetry)
Xanthias and Pluto's slave are chatting about their masters, and Pluto's slave explains that a mighty quarrel has erupted in the underworld between Aeschylus and Euripides, over the chair of tragedy. (Sophocles had conveniently retired from the contest.) Pluto has now chosen Dionysus to arbitrate their quarrel.

The agon: Euripides challenges and rails at Aeschylus, who tries at first to ignore Euripides, but he is drawn in. Dionysus makes a prayer to be able to judge the contest.
a) Euripides' critique of Aeschylus: the silent figure; poetic obscurity; Euripides put over-stuffed tragedy 'on a diet'; he made 'domestic' dramas, taught people to think.
b) Aeschylus' reply: the dramatist's job is about technical skill and improvement. Aeschylus put great heroes on the stage, and worked in the noble tradition of Homer, whereas Euripides wrote stories of rape, incest, etc.
c) Prologues: Aeschylean obscurity, repetition; Euripides 'ran out of oil.'
d) Lyrics: Aeschylean repetition/monotony; Euripidean nonsense choral verse and mock monody - "woe for my chicken."
e) The weighing of verses: Dionysus says "Euripides is so sophisticated and Aeschylus so rewarding." (A better translation of the line is "the one [Aeschylus] I consider wise, the other I enjoy.")
f) The giving of advice to the city: should Athens recall Alcibiades? Both give obscure advice. Dionysus chooses Aeschylus.

Exodos: Pluto gives Aeschylus some tools with which to dispatch a few corrupt politicians/war mongers down to Hades, and Aeschylus chooses Sophocles to hold the chair of poetry.

Gorgias said: "he who is deceived is more just (fairer) than he who is not." The challenge of theatre is to create plausible endings. See Aristotle's Poetics. In comedy, the challenge is to break the illusion. Think of the difference between Agathon and Mnesilochus - they are both played by men, but Agathon is good at being a woman and Mnesilochus is not.

The scene at the Thesmophoria is metatheatrical. It alludes to the fictional status of the play. In the play there is a man dressed as a woman, using shocking and abusive language. Is Mnesilochus' speech persuasive or convincing? Is he plausibly characterised? Mnesilochus is unsuccessful at persuading. Outside of the play, the audience witnesses a character trying to persuade the audience within the play. We see through the illusion because it is bad fakery. But it is successful as an unconvincing scene - it is convincingly unconvincing. At a 'meta' level it is convincing. Mnesilochus' mistake is to produce an image of a woman who is worse than real life. He is trying to pry into the lives of the women but he has such a negative view of them that he unwittingly exposes himself. Comedy distorts people so they are represented as worse than in real life. The theme of the play is the problematisation of bad art, so that it becomes funny.

When Mnesilochus steals the baby, he is parodying Euripides' heroine. Aristophanes implicitly says that Euripides' plays are fake and therefore ridiculous. He also parodies Euripides' Andromeda when Euripides flies in to rescue Mnesilochus dressed as Perseus, and fails.

In the archer scene, Scythian archers (Russian slaves) are employed by magistrates. Aristophanes puts Euripides into one of his own plays, but shows that it is ineffectual. However, a dancing girl is effectual. Comedy saves the day. Comedy wins over tragedy.

The subject of the play is dramatic illusion (specifically, bad dramatic illusions of Euripides' recent plays). Gendered roles are utilised: male actors play female characters, so there is a challenge in making it plausible. But these roles can be used to different effects in the different genres of comedy and tragedy. Comedy intends to make us laugh, it is light-hearted, fantastical, metatheatrical, life-affirming and the ending sees the restoration of normality. On the other hand, tragedy makes us sad, it is serious, realistic, there is no break in the illusion and there is no return to normality at the end.

Aristophanes thought that Euripides had confused comedy and tragedy because his plays combined the attributes of both genres. Euripides' plays could be unrealistic, life-affirming and have happy endings, yet they were still labelled as tragedies. Other confusions which Euripides explored was that between men and women, and illusion and reality.