The Frogs

The Frogs
Red-figure vase painting showing an actor dressed as Xanthias in The Frogs, standing next to a statuette of Heracles
Written by	Aristophanes
Chorus	Frogs, Initiates, citizens of Hades
Characters	Dionysus Xanthias, Dionysus' slave Heracles A corpse Charon Janitor of Hades A maid Hostess Plathane, maid of the inn Euripides Aeschylus Pluto various extras
Setting	Outside Heracles' house; Lake Acheron; Hades

The Frogs (Greek: Βάτραχοι, translit. Bátrakhoi; Latin: Ranae, often abbreviated Ran. or Ra.) is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus in Athens, in 405 BC and received first place.^[1]

The play features the comical katabasis of the god of theater Dionysus, with his slave Xanthias, in order to revive the late tragedian Euripides. Dionysus is frustrated with tragedy's decline in quality after the playwright's recent passing, and concerned about theatre's future as the city of Athens struggles in the Peloponnesian War. During the pair's journey through the underworld, the god cravenly and unsuccessfully attempts to evade trouble after masquerading as Heracles, still infamous for his prior kidnapping of the guard-dog Cerberus. At the palace of Pluto, Dionysus then adjudicates a fierce debate between Euripides and Aeschylus for the underworld's throne of tragic drama. Aeschylus wins due to his pragmatism, and Dionysus ends up reviving him instead. The play's title derives from the first choral interlude (parodos), where the chorus, a group of frogs, exasperate Dionysus in song.

A defining work of Old Comedy, The Frogs contains a mix of irreverent humor and highbrow satire of Athenian politics, religion and theatre, commenting on poetry's moral role in civic and political life. The play is notably characterised by its extensive literary criticism and references: the second half's agon between Euripides and Aeschylus examines both figures' differing approaches to tragedy. In 1974, the play was loosely adapted into a musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove. This adaptation features the English playwrights George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare, in place of Euripides and Aeschylus respectively.