![]() He is the irrational power that allows us to explore our potential for emotional and behavioral extremes. This vegetation god also presides over or underlies prophecy, tragedy, ecstasy, and the violation of limits. Dionysus, rooted in the earth and ecstasy, is the prototype of shamanic descent and the dying and resurrecting godmen. We see this rapture, or rising up, depicted in the tarot trump Judgement or The Aeon. These notes have been heavily influenced by Leo Strauss’s book, Socrates and Aristophanes.įor this reading I used the Loeb Edition translated by Jeffrey Henderson.Contrary to popular opinion Dionysus is not merely the god of revelry, indulgence, erotic compulsion and intoxication, but of ecstatic rapture. His decision is guided by the blunder of having traveled to Hades in the first place, but this blunder may yield fruitful consequences. Dionysus can be changed, and he can help support the just city, and its oath-swearing. His tastes change in the play, and thus Aristophanes is hopeful about the edifying, or rather perhaps corrective effects of the theatre. The play is a kind of education of Dionysus (Aristophanes’s teacher), moving from his admiration for Euripides to a reborn preference for Aeschylus. Recall, there are several oaths broken by Dionysus throughout the play, including the promise of bringing Euripides back from Hades. Aeschylus wins after criticizing Euripides’s atheism, upon which the foundation for swearing oaths in society is not possible. ![]() Eventually, Dionysus must decide who is the superior poet to bring back to Athens, and he surprisingly chooses Aeschylus. Aeschylus is noted for his gigantic grandeur and fury, while Euripides is noted for his sharp-tongued wit and envy. Aeschylus originally held the throne, but once Euripides came to Hades, he started impressing the rabble with his tricks. He learns that Aeschylus and Euripides are engaged in a competition for a throne near Pluton in Hades. Nevertheless, Dionysus is beaten -whipped like a slave. They are welcomed into Persephone’s home, but the wily Dionysus trades Herakles costumes with his slave Xanthias, after realizing Herakles was most unwelcome in Hades. Passing through the terrors and the initiated at Eleusis, they arrive at Pluton’s gate. A chorus of frogs annoys Dionysus across the lake. Apparently customs remain the same as above so below in Hades. They arrive at the great lake and Charon ferries disguised Dionysus across, but not Xanthias, as a slave per Athenian customs. In allusion to Odysseus, Aeneas, Orpheus, and Theseus, Dionysus ventures down to Hades. Dionysus listens to his slave Xanthias when he prefers not to embark on the journey to Hades, however when he speaks to a corpse already headed to Hades about joining him instead, the corpse demands high payment, and thus Xanthias sensibly joins his master and friend. Dionysus departs dressed as Herakles so as to pass through Hades better. Herakles tries to dissuade him with three options of suicide, then tells him of the great lake which Charon will ferry as well as the beasts and sewage and sufferers. Perhaps Dionysus’s softness underlies his love of Euripides. Herakles is sobriety, against Dionysus’s drunken infatuation.ĭionysus gets to the point of his visit: he needs guidance on the best (meaning softest and easiest) route to Hades, since Herakles is one of the few mortals to survive and return from the venture. ![]() Herakles suggests bringing back Sophocles, but Dionysus rejects this as Sophocles is too moderate and even-tempered, but Euripides is a scoundrel for departing his city. ![]() In foreshadowing of Shakespeare’s Falstaff, Dionysus has been fighting in naval warfare, where he read Euripides’s Andromeda (now lost) and he longs to bring the poet back from the dead (Euripides had recently died). They arrive at the house of Herakles, humorously disguised in a lion’s skin and women’s clothes (accidentally). Xanthias is concerned with the right kind of comedy while Dionysus is concerned with the right kind of tragedy. As they walk, Xanthias is meta-textually concerned with telling jokes that will make the audience laugh, and laughter presupposes some kind of suffering, though the reverse is not true. It is the only Aristophanean comedy to feature a god at the beginning -Dionysus, the god of the theatre, and his slave Xanthias. The Frogs is my favorite of Aristophanes’s comedies.
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