The Frogs

by

Aristophanes

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Themes and Colors
Old vs. New  Theme Icon
The Value of Art  Theme Icon
Literary Criticism  Theme Icon
Critique of Athenian Democracy  Theme Icon
Appearance vs. Reality  Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Frogs, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Old vs. New

In Aristophanes’s The Frogs, Dionysus (the god of theater) strongly believes that the comic playwrights currently living in Athens simply don’t compare to the famous tragedian Euripides, who recently died. Dionysus thinks Euripides and the older generation of tragedians taught Athenians how to live virtuously and be good citizens. In this way, Dionysus’s rejection of contemporary comic playwrights reflects his (and Aristophanes’s) disdain for contemporary Athenian culture, which he considers debased and degraded—and which…

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The Value of Art

In The Frogs, Aristophanes suggests that poetry—and art in general—is more than a mere source of entertainment. Not long after Dionysus and Xanthias arrive in Hades, the audience learns that recently deceased tragedians Euripides and Aeschylus are engaged in an impassioned dispute over which poet will lay claim to a coveted chair in Pluto’s great hall. To settle their dispute, Euripides and Aeschylus compete in a contest to prove which poet writes “weightier”…

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Literary Criticism

Though The Frogs is a comedy, it also serves as an example of what would come to be known as criticism. The play’s central drama involves a contest between recently deceased tragedians Euripides and Aeschylus in which they critique each other’s poetry while reciting and arguing for the stylistic, structural, and thematic merits of their own work. It’s only after hearing this critical analysis that Dionysus decides which man is the better poet—and thus, which…

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Critique of Athenian Democracy

At the time of The Frogs’s first performance in 405 B.C.E., Athens was embroiled in a bitter war against Sparta and was on the verge of collapse. Sparta held Athens under siege, preventing Athenians from leaving the city, and Athens was quickly losing the support of its most important allies. Indeed, the following year, Athens would surrender to Sparta, thus beginning an era of Spartan control over Ancient Greece. In The Frogs, Aristophanes…

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Appearance vs. Reality

Though Dionysus is a god, he is portrayed in The Frogs as “effeminate,” incompetent, and cowardly—he repeatedly soils himself at the first sign of danger, for instance, and he’s more than willing to sacrifice Xanthias if it means sparing his own life. To mask his cowardice and other shortcomings, Dionysus dons a robe and lion skin—a costume he’s assembled to disguise himself as his half-brother, the divine hero Heracles. Of course, the costume doesn’t…

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