The Frogs

The Frogs (Ancient Greek: Βάτραχοι, romanized: 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.

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 humour 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 Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw and English playwright William Shakespeare, in place of Euripides and Aeschylus respectively.

Dionysus is travelling with his slave Xanthias to the underworld. Xanthias, carrying Dionysus' baggage, attempts to make fun of his heavy load with toilet humour – the jokes he believes the audiences are expecting from this situation – but the god frustratedly pre-empts his remarks. To find a reliable path to Hades, Dionysus seeks advice from his half-brother Heracles, who had been there before in order to retrieve the hell hound Cerberus. Dionysus shows up at his doorstep dressed in a lion-hide and carrying a club. Heracles, upon seeing the effeminate Dionysus dressed up like himself, cannot help laughing. Dionysus explains his motivation for travelling to Hades: to bring the playwright Euripides back from the dead, in order to correct what he sees as the sorry state of Athens' tragedians. When Dionysus asks which road is the quickest to get to Hades, Heracles tells him that he can hang himself, drink poison or jump off a tower. Dionysus opts for the longer journey, which Heracles himself had taken, across a lake (possibly Lake Acheron).