The Frogs 169ation by Dionysus, whose concluding judgment is
the vehicle for the author’s take-home political mes-
sage. Dionysus’s decision to bring Aeschylus back
from Hades is disinterested as far as the ambitions
of Aeschylus and Euripides to return to the living
realm are concerned, for his actions are determined
solely in accordance with the furthering of his own
ambitions: to return to life a great tragedian who,
through sage political advice, can save the city and
so enable the continuance of drama festivals in Dio-
nysus’s honor:
Euripides: What do you want a poet for?
Dionysus: To save the City of course. If the
city isn’t saved, there won’t be any more drama
festivals, and then where shall I be? (l. 2.1)The implicit political role of the poet here is
important and ties in with the play’s self-reflexivity,
which is constituted in significant part by literary
criticism—here the form’s content comments on
what makes for good content within the very liter-
ary form—and by the framing of plays within the
play. Extracts from canonical plays are quoted, and
The Frogs even opens with characters devising a play
opening. These devices create frames for the action
and point the reader to consider the frame in which
the play itself was written and how, by means of this
work, Aristophanes pursues his own personal ambi-
tions as a poet: to deliver a political message that
promotes the poet’s position by protecting opportu-
nities such as drama festivals and, more immediately,
to win the drama competition for which The Frogs
was his entry.
Kate Concannon
identity in The Frogs
Mistaken and switched identity is a major conven-
tion of ancient Greek theater, and its preponderance
has continued throughout much of subsequent
Western theater tradition. Often it functions as a
fulcrum for dramatic confusion and conflict that
propels plot; it also functions as a comedic device.
Whereas act 2’s humor relies on the wit and satire
that characterizes the dialogic argument between
Aeschylus and Euripides, in act 1 the repeated
switching of identity is the primary device by which
humor is achieved. Identity swapping is also used
to reveal the characters’ “real” nature underlying the
borrowed identities. Furthermore, plays on identity
are exploited to produce self-reflexive effects.
The visual humor of costuming, by which iden-
tity is marked, is rendered accessible to readers even
without the benefit of a staged performance: Hera-
cles laughs to behold Dionysus’s “yellow nightdress,”
and his “feminine boots” also rate mention. Similarly,
the physical humor played out in the frequent and
hurried exchanges of costume between Xanthias and
Dionysus is readily imaginable and does not rely on
actual performance to be grasped. Structurally, these
costumed identity exchanges are also significant,
marking Xanthias’s and Dionysus’s challenges as
they strive toward entry into Pluto’s palace, where
Euripides is to be found. In this sense, identity
swaps function to punctuate their negotiation of the
journey through its constitutive encounters.
The confusion and false belief arising from
the identity games led by Dionysus in act 1 sweep
the plot along, shifting the balance of advantage
each identity presents from encounter to encounter.
This creates the flow by which situations arise and
develop. By way of example, the first exchange with
Aeacus leads Dionysus to initiate an identity swap to
evade pain, which is followed by an exchange with
Persephone’s maid that prompts another swap to
procure pleasure, which in turn leads to an encoun-
ter with two landladies that motivates a swap back
to evade pain again.
Dionysus is self-serving. The whole undertaking
detailed in The Frogs is motivated by his personal
ambition to protect the drama festivals held in his
honor and so too are his moves to swap between
the identities of Heracles, Xanthias, and Dionysus
motivated by self-interest. The pattern of charac-
ter these switches describe furnishes an incisive
picture of Dionysus’s personality. At the prospect
of Aeacus’s revenge on him for Heracles’ harm to
Cerberus, Dionysus is shown to be cowardly, suf-
fering a moment of incontinence before passing
over the godly costume (and attendant threat of
imminent violence) to Xanthias. Shortly thereafter,
Dionysus’s quick enthusiasm for the opportunity
to be hosted as Heracles in the amorous company
of Persephone’s maids and dancing girls exposes