by Aristophanes
Joyful chords of lute and lyre.
Cords I have, but far from sweet:
How they hurt my hands and feet!
And my tender limbs shall please
None but whales – or Glaucetes.97
Ah, bewail my dreadful fate,
1040 Weep and groan as I relate
How a kinsman stern and harsh
Shaved my whiskers and moustache:
Dressed me up in frills and lace,
Sent me to this awful place,
Full of women fierce and grim,
Keen to tear me limb from limb.
O cruel demon of Fate,
Accursed, accursed am I.
Who can look upon my plight
And not shudder at the sight?
1050 Thunder-god, your lightning send,
Bring my anguish to an end!
(Smite the Scythian, not me!)
It profits little now to gaze
On the sun’s immortal rays:
It would suit me just as well
Down among the shades to dwell.
[ECHO,98 in the form of a woman, speaks from offstage.]
ECHO
Hail, dearest child! I pray the gods destroy
Your father Cepheus, who exposed you thus!
MNESILOCHUS
Who are you, that take pity on my plight?
ECHO
Echo, the mocking singer-back of words.
1060 Last year I was here in the festival.
I worked together with Euripides.99
But now, my child, you must fulfil your role
And utter lamentations pitifully.
MNESILOCHUS
I see, and then you’ll lament after me.
ECHO Yes, leave all that to me.
[ECHO conceals herself behind a column of the temple portico.]
Now you can start.
MNESILOCHUS O holy night,
Long, long is the journey
You take in your chariot,
Crossing the ridges of the starry sky
Over proud Olympus.
ECHO Proud Olympus.
MNESILOCHUS
Why should I, Andromeda,
1070 Of all maidens, have so great
A share of woe?
ECHO Share of woe.
MNESILOCHUS
Ah, wretched me!
ECHO Ah, wretched me!
MNESILOCHUS Stop interrupting!
ECHO Stop interrupting!
MNESILOCHUS You’re coming in too often.
ECHO In too often.
MNESILOCHUS I’d really be obliged if you would let me soliloquize. So shut up!
ECHO So shut up!
MNESILOCHUS To hell with you!
ECHO To hell with you!
1080 MNESILOCHUS What’s wrong with you?
ECHO What’s wrong with you?
MNESILOCHUS Just you wait!
ECHO Just you wait!
MNESILOCHUS You’ll regret this.
ECHO You’ll regret this.
[The SCYTHIAN returns with a mat.]
SCYTHIAN [to MNESILOCHUS] Wat you say?
ECHO Wat you say?
SCYTHIAN I call da magistrate.
ECHO I call da magistrate.
SCYTHIAN Waz dis?
ECHO Waz dis?
SCYTHIAN Where dis voice?
ECHO Where dis voice?
SCYTHIAN Wat you say?
ECHO Wat you say?
SCYTHIAN [still to MNESILOCHUS] You wan I punch you?
ECHO You wan I punch you?
SCYTHIAN You make fun-a me?
ECHO You make fun-a me?
1090 MNESILOCHUS Not me, it’s this woman here.
ECHO [from somewhere else] This woman here.
SCYTHIAN [looking for the source of the voice] Chiky beetch! Where she go?
ECHO Where she go?
SCYTHIAN I give you pain!
ECHO I give you pain!
SCYTHIAN You still make fun?
ECHO You still make fun?
SCYTHIAN [trying to grab ECHO] I catch you now!
ECHO [from elsewhere] Catch you now! [She makes her escape.]
SCYTHIAN Dat bloody woman, she talk too much.
[Enter EURIPIDES, aerially on the stage-crane. He is disguised as Perseus, complete with winged sandals and Gorgon’s head. He lands by MNESILOCHUS and the SCYTHIAN.]
EURIPIDES
Gods, to what barbarous country have I come
On my swift sandal, cleaving through the sky
1100 My wingèd path? For Argos I am bound,
And in my hand the Gorgon’s head I bear.100
SCYTHIAN Wat you say? Gorgas da writer?101 You got his head?
EURIPIDES I said ‘the Gorgon’s head’.
SCYTHIAN Da Gorgas’ head, aha!
EURIPIDES
But wait, what rock is here? And what is this?
A divine maiden tied up like a ship?
MNESILOCHUS
Have pity, stranger, on my wretched fate,
And loose me from my bonds!
SCYTHIAN You shuddup! You soon die, still you no keep-a ya mouth shut?
EURIPIDES
Fair virgin, how my heart with pity fills
1110 To see you hanging there.
SCYTHIAN No, no, he no maid. This dirty ol’ man.
EURIPIDES
Oh, Scythian, you are wrong:
This is Andromeda, the child of Cepheus.
SCYTHIAN You no believe me? I show you his pi-pi. [He lifts
MNESILOCHUS’ dress.] Is big, no?
EURIPIDES
Lend me your hand, that I may reach the maid.
Come, Scythian, help me up! For men are prone
To every kind of ill, and in my case
Love for this maid has struck me to the core.
SCYTHIAN You got very strange taste. If he other way round,
1120 den I understand.
EURIPIDES
O Scythian, let me release her bonds,
And I will bear her to the bridal bed.
SCYTHIAN You want very much make love to ol’ man? Den
you go round da back and make hole in wood.
EURIPIDES Nay, I will free her!
SCYTHIAN Den I beat you.
EURIPIDES I will, I insist!
SCYTHIAN I cut off your head wid my knife.
EURIPIDES [aside]
Alas, what can I do? What can I say?
His barbarous mind – it will not understand.
1130 ‘To use new schemes upon a witless fool’102
Is just a waste of time. I must devise
A stratagem more suited to this man.
[EURIPIDES takes off again.]
SCYTHIAN Dirty fox, he make-a da monkey out-a me!
MNESILOCHUS
Farewell then, Perseus, but forget me not:
No maid was ever in a tighter spot.
SCYTHIAN You wan I whip you?
[After glaring at MNESILOCHUS, the SCYTHIAN settles down to sleep.]
CHORUS [Hymn to Pallas Athene]
Who but we should call her,
Who but we, the dancers?
Pallas, maid and goddess,
Pallas, the unwedded!
Pallas of Athens!
For she takes delight
In song and in the dance,
And the keys in her hand
1140 Are the keys of our city.
Hers is the power,
And she is our goddess.
Who but we should call her?
Who but we, the Chorus?
Come to us, Pallas,
Enemy of tyranny!
Come to the call
Of the women of Athens!
Come, and bring peace,
For then we shall have feasting!
[Hymn to Demeter and Persephone]
And you, Immortal Pair,
Come, come joyfully
To your sacred grove,
1150 To the rites no man may look upon.
&n
bsp; Show us the holy vision
In the dazzle of the torches.
Hear us, O hear!
If ever you have come at our call,
Come to us now!
Come to us, O come!
[The SCYTHIAN is still asleep. Enter EURIPIDES, carrying a lyre and the mask and costume of an old woman. He approaches the CHORUS conspiratorially.]
1160 EURIPIDES Ladies, if you would like to come to terms from now on, this is your chance. I promise solemnly never to say anything bad about you again. This is a serious offer.103
CHORUS-LEADER And what do you want in return for this proposal?
EURIPIDES The man on the plank there is a relative of mine. If I can get him out of here, you’ll never hear another bad word from me. But if you refuse to help, when your husbands get back from war I’ll tell them everything that’s been going on at home.
1170 CHORUS-LEADER As far as we are concerned, we accept your terms. But you yourself must tackle the barbarian.
EURIPIDES Leave that to me. [He puts on the disguise, and calls out in an old woman’s voice.] Come on, Twinkletoes!
[Enter a young DANCING-GIRL.]
Now remember what I told you on the way here. We’ll just run through it – and don’t forget to hitch your skirt up. [To a PIPER in the orchestra] Give us a Persian dance, will you, piper?
[The PIPER begins to play, and the SCYTHIAN wakes up.]
SCYTHIAN Wat dat noise? Ah, da music wake me up.
EURIPIDES She just wants to practise her dance, officer. She has to go and dance for some gentlemen.
SCYTHIAN Oho, da practise dancing! Very nice! I no stop her.
[The GIRL begins her dance.]
1180 Girlie very light! Like flea on back of sheep.
EURIPIDES [as the dance ends] Now put your cloak down here, dear, and sit down a moment – here you are, on the Scythian gentleman’s knee – and give me your foot so I can undo your shoes.
SCYTHIAN Thas right, girlie, sit down here. Hmm, she have nice titties – like lid’l turnips.
EURIPIDES [to the PIPER] Liven it up, now. [To the GIRL]
You’re not afraid of the nice Scythian any more, are you?
[The GIRL dances again, with fewer clothes on.]
SCYTHIAN Hmm, she have nice bottom. [To MNESILOCHUS]
You stay inside dem clothes,104 ol’ man. [To EURIPIDES] She nice down here in front also.
EURIPIDES You’re quite right. [To the GIRL] Well, put your cloak on again: it’s time we were off.
1190 SCYTHIAN You no let me kiss her first?
EURIPIDES Give the gentleman a kiss.
[The GIRL does so.]
SCYTHIAN Ooh! Hmm! She have sweet tongue, like honey. You sleep wid me, yes?
EURIPIDES Now, officer, really! She’s not supposed to do that.
SCYTHIAN Please, please, old lady! You fix for me?
EURIPIDES Will you pay one drachma?
SCYTHIAN Yes, yes, I give drachma.
EURIPIDES Hand it over, then.
SCYTHIAN But I no have drachma. I know: I give quiver, you give GIRLie, yes? [He hands the quiver to EURIPIDES.] You come-a dis way, lid’l GIRLie. [To EURIPIDES] You watch ol’ man for me. [To the GIRL] Wat your name?
1200 EURIPIDES Her name’s Artemisia.
SCYTHIAN I no forget her name: Amnesia.
[The GIRL runs off and disappears.]
EURIPIDES Oh, Hermes, god of trickery, how neat your work! [To the SCYTHIAN, who has already set off in pursuit] Run after her, quickly, and catch her! [The SCYTHIAN is soon out of sight.] And now to free the prisoner. [To MNESILOCHUS] As soon as you are free, escape immediately, and make sure you go straight home to your wife and children.
MNESILOCHUS Trust me, I will – as soon as I get out of this.
[EURIPIDES releases him as quickly as possible.]
EURIPIDES There, you’re free. Now, off with you, quickly, before you-know-who comes back and finds you.
MNESILOCHUS I’m off, don’t worry.
[MNESILOCHUS hurries off, followed by EURIPIDES. The DANCING-GIRL and the SCYTHIAN return.]
1210 SCYTHIAN Ol’ woman, your daughter she so nice! She no complain, very willing – hey! Where Ol’ woman go? Oh no! Dis not good. Ol’ man gone too. Hey! Ol’ woman, Ol’ woman! I no like you. De Ol’ woman trick me. [To the GIRL] Go after dem! [She runs off.] I give her one in quiver, and now me is done for! Ol’ woman! Amnesia!
CHORUS-LEADER Are you by any chance looking for the old woman with the harp?
SCYTHIAN Yes, yes. You see her?
CHORUS-LEADER [pointing the wrong way]105 She went that way – there was an old man following.
SCYTHIAN Ol’ man in yellow dress, yes?
1220 CHORUS That’s right. You can still catch them, if you go that way.
SCYTHIAN Bad ol’ woman! Which way she go? [Shouting] Amnesia!
chorus [severally] Straight up there. No, where are you going?
Not back! This way! That’s right! No, you’re going the wrong way!
[The SCYTHIAN runs wildly about, trying to follow their instructions, and eventually runs offstage.]
SCYTHIAN [as he disappears] Amnesia! Amnesia! I lose
Amnesia!
CHORUS
Run along, run along; you can run straight to Hell
For all we care, and good riddance, I say.
But it’s time we were all moving off, truth to tell;
We’ve had our measure of fun for one day.
1230 May the goddesses bless us, and praise us as well,
If they’re pleased with our work – and with our play.
FROGS
PREFACE TO FROGS
Frogs was first performed at the Lenaea of 405 BC, about a year after the death of Euripides in the winter of 407/6. The political situation in Athens in 405 was fraught with danger and uncertainty. A Spartan army was permanently encamped at Deceleia in Attica. This confined the Athenians to the city, the harbour at Piraeus and the walled strip of land connecting them. The Athenian navy, meanwhile, was struggling to maintain superiority, while Sparta’s fleet was boosted by new allies including the Persian king Cyrus. Athens’ grip over her allies was also very insecure. Admittedly, the Athenians had won a major naval battle at Arginusae (off Lesbos) in the summer of 406, but the victory was Pyrrhic; twenty-five Athenian ships and up to five thousand men were lost. There was heated debate about the responsibility for such heavy casualties. In an atmosphere of intimidation and scant regard for law, most of the victorious commanders were sentenced to death. Afterwards, many Athenians felt they had been coerced into acting wrongly by certain radical democrat leaders (including Theramenes and Cleophon, whom Aristophanes criticizes in Frogs). Such leaders had increased their influence by freeing, and granting citizenship to, the large contingent of slaves who fought at Arginusae. They also rejected an offer of peace by Sparta that was extremely generous considering Athens’ various predicaments.
One man who might have turned Athenian fortunes was Alcibiades, an ambivalent figure who was still in exile, but had been exiled before only to be readmitted. While he had spent some time as a defector in Sparta, he was still widely recognized as Athens’ most capable general and statesman. Dionysus’ questioning of Aeschylus and Euripides about Alcibiades towards the end of the play is not merely capricious, it was a burning issue of the day. It is, however, difficult to extricate Aristophanes’ own viewpoint from the play itself. What is said about Alcibiades – while it appears, taken as a whole, to commend his recall – nonetheless seems to be left deliberately ambivalent.
Frogs offers clearer advice about the treatment of those who took part in the oligarchy and were disenfranchised after the return to democracy in 410. According to one ancient source, it was on the strength of Aristophanes’ advice in the parabasis, namely to restore the rights of such men, that the play received the unique accolade of a second performance at a city festival (in 404). One consequence of Frogs being granted a second performance is that the text as we ha
ve it seems, in one or two places, to amalgamate the original and revised scripts. This is most acutely evident in the last phase of the contest for tragedy, where Dionysus asks both tragedians what should be done about Alcibiades and how the city might be saved. Still, such differences as there may be between the original and revised scripts do not significantly affect the overall action of the play or the treatment of Aeschylus and Euripides.
A second issue that has some bearing on our text of Frogs is the death of Sophocles. It is generally supposed that Sophocles, who died later in 406, was alive while much of the play was being written, but that his death entailed some hasty rewriting. While he does not appear as a character, there are two passages of dialogue – the first is between Dionysus and Heracles, the second between Xanthias and a fellow slave – that pointedly explain his non-participation in the contest for the throne of tragedy. Both passages have an air of improvisation. The same is true of the final mention of Sophocles at the end of the play, where Aeschylus says that he has asked Sophocles to guard the throne of tragedy in his absence.
There are many reasons for presenting a contest between Aeschylus and Euripides rather than Aeschylus and Sophocles or Sophocles and Euripides. Aeschylus’ plays were already a mainstay of the tragic canon; he was the only playwright known to have been granted the privilege of having his plays produced posthumously (his character alludes to this in the play, 866–9). It is therefore only to be expected, if there were a throne of tragedy in the underworld, that Aeschylus should be its incumbent. The choice of Aeschylus and Euripides as characters may be explained partly in terms of the play’s prominent thematic interest in the contrast between Old and New. It requires a two-man contest between divergent factions. The only way to oppose Old and New Tragedy – among Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides – is to pit the revered past master Aeschylus against the tirelessly innovative maverick Euripides. It is unsurprising that Sophocles should side with Aeschylus. While he was only a few years older than Euripides, and was capable of equally breathtaking innovation in his plays, he had never been associated with radicalism or the avant-garde; moreover, as someone who had served as a general and a politician, unlike Euripides, he also embodied more traditional, ‘Aeschylean’ values. In addition, Aeschylus and Sophocles had actually competed in 468 when Sophocles defeated Aeschylus with his first performed play. This may have disinclined Aristophanes from presenting another contest between the two. While Euripides may have competed against posthumously produced Aeschylus plays, he never competed against him in person, since Aeschylus died in 456, a year before Euripides’ first performed play. Thus Frogs presents us with the only contest, among these three tragedians, that never actually took place.