170 Aristophanes
the god’s sensuousness, while Xanthias’s slowness
in picking up the maid’s meaning exposes his rela-
tive naïveté. Dionysus’s shameless self-interest as he
swings with alacrity between costumed identities to
ensure his own advantage at every point is in itself a
comedic source, producing an extremity of conduct
crafted for laughs.
The assuming and discarding of identity
throughout the play is also used as a self-reflecting
device, contributing to the overall effect by which
the play indicates it is conscious of itself as a text
and a performance.
Xanthias: There, how do I look? Reckon the
part suits me better than it does you, you old
coward!
Dionysus: Hm! A very good imitation of a slave
dressed up as Heracles. (l. 2.11460–11521)In this exchange, Dionysus draws attention to the
very nature of performance and, implicitly, how this
applies to the performance of The Frogs itself. Just
as suspended disbelief supports the credibility of
Xanthias as Heracles, so too does it support that of
the play’s own actors as they don the identities of
The Frogs’ characters.
By this self-reflexivity, the play draws attention
to what exists outside and beyond it and how this
might relate to the play and its meanings. It also
provides clues as to Aristophanes’ use of structure
to guide the audience’s interpretation of those
meanings. Specific instances of self-reflection such
as Dionysus’s comment above do not just prompt
the audience to see how those specific examples
connect the play’s fictionally contained realm with
the broader “reality” to which it points. They also
promote an attitude of outward reading so that the
play’s overall messages will be taken as intended for
the real world. Dionysus’s belief that a poet can save
the city mirrors Aristophanes. Moreover, the play’s
internal reality legitimizes by its assumptions both
the political aptitude of the poet and the conse-
quent importance of heeding his political message,
while also providing that message to be received and
heeded by the audience in its own real world.
Kate Concannon
traditiOn in The Frogs
The Frogs engages with tradition at several key levels.
Mythological and religious traditions underpin the
play’s characters and immediate setting, as well as its
wider cultural frame of reference. On another level,
the ancient Greek poetic and dramatic tradition is
evoked through reference to earlier poets’ works.
Additionally, broader traditions of ancient Greek
theater are reproduced and developed by Aristo-
phanes’ own use of conventional types, tropes, and
structure. Two primary purposes can be adduced
from this emphasis on tradition: an orchestrated
appeal to cultural patriotism to condition the audi-
ence for Aristophanes’ political message and an
expounding of his own related poetic position.
The journey to Hades (called katabasis) is a tra-
ditional act of heroism and as such is a beaten track
in the mythology of ancient Greece. The play itself
acknowledges this tradition, assuming the audi-
ence’s familiarity with previous katabatic journeys
in its reference to Heracles’ recent visit to Hades
and in its mention of the underworld presence of
Persephone, whose adventures to Hades form their
own significant mythology. The play’s settings, from
the River Styx to Pluto’s palace, are thus locations
rich with cultural significance readily identifiable to
an ancient Athenian audience. Likewise, the rites
played out by the chorus of devotees, who are initi-
ates in religious mysteries, contribute to the dense
tissue of cultural tradition around which The Frogs
is cast.
In act 2, Athenian poetic tradition is drawn forth
with recitation from Aeschylus’s and Euripides’ plays
as their poetry is laid out for critique. The presence
of Aeschylus’s and Euripides’ work within The Frogs
goes rather deeper than these dialogic references and
extracts, however. Signature features incorporated
within The Frogs create a double reflection of their
particular contributions to stylistic and structural
traditions of theater. Thus, these poets’ works, by
influence, furnish the dramatic structure Aristo-
phanes then uses to explore their poetic merits. In
his time, Aeschylus expanded the number of char-
acters in a play to facilitate conflict between them
where, previously, characters interacted only with
the chorus. The Frogs bears this legacy in the smaller
role of the chorus and in the conflicts between