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 criticizes numerous flaws in Athenian democracy and leaders for their role in Athens’s decline. Democracy in Athens was restored following the overthrowing of the oligarchy in 411. Act One, Scene Two closes with the chorus attributing Athens’s present state to the restored democracy’s unwillingness “to forgive and forget” those who wronged them, or those whom the oligarchy disenfranchised. As well, the play criticizes contemporary leaders like Cleigenes, who put business interests above the health of the state.
The play also partly attributes the gradual fall of Athens to Athenian ambivalence over the exile of the general Alcibiades, who had been exiled on charges of impiety (he was accused of profaning the Mysteries) that his political enemies accused him of. Following his exile, he lived in Sparta as a defecator and helped them gain the upper hand in the ongoing war. Following a falling out with the Spartans, he was reinstated in Athens in 407, only to have his title taken away by his enemies. At the time of The Frogs’s first performance, then, Alcibiades was a hotly debated figure, with many Athenians still believing him to be a competent, respected martial figure undeserving of this punishment. In the play, Dionysus asks both Euripides and Aeschylus what should be done about Alcibiades to gauge which poet is better suited to save Athens (in response, the poets offer opposing, albeit vague, solutions). The Frogs thus is not just a comedy, but also a vehicle through which Aristophanes criticizes the present state of Athenian democracy, examines what has contributed to Athens’s near-collapses, and poses potential solutions to restore Athens to its former glory.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Critique of Athenian Democracy ThemeTracker
Critique of Athenian Democracy Quotes in The Frogs
CHORUS
Well now you’re dressed up just the same as before,
A sight to make anyone tremble,
You must roll your eyes and swagger and roar
Like the god you’re supposed to resemble.
If you flinch or waver or fluff your role
And forget to speak bravely and brag, man,
You’ll be putting those suitcases back on that pole
And going back to your job as a bagman.
CHORUS-LEADER
[…]
These we abuse, and look instead to knaves,
Upstarts, nonentities, foreigners and slaves –
Rascals all! Honestly, what men we choose!
There was a time when you’d have scorned to use
Men so debased, so far beyond the pale,
Even as scapegoats to be dragged from jail
And flogged to death outside the city gates.
Misguided friends, change now, it’s not too late!
Try the good ones again: if they succeed,
You will have shown that you have sense indeed;
And if things don’t go well, if these good men
All fail, and Athens comes to grief, why, then
Discerning folk will murmur (let us hope):
‘She hanged herself, but with a first-rate rope!’
SLAVE He’s a real gentleman, your master, by Zeus.
XANTHIAS Of course. Like all real gentlemen he only understands two things: swigging and frigging.
SLAVE Well, Euripides came along and started showing off to all the other people we’ve got down here, you know, cut-throats, highwaymen, murderers, burglars – a right rough lot they are – and of course he soon had them all twisted round his little finger, with all his arguments and clever talking. So they’ve all started saying he’s the best, and he’s decided to lay claim to the chair instead of Aeschylus.
EURIPIDES I taught them how to apply subtle rules, how to turn a phrase neatly. I taught them to observe, to discern, to interpret; to use spin, to massage the facts; to suspect the worst, to take nothing at face value…
DIONYSUS That’s right: whenever an Athenian comes home nowadays, he shouts at the servants and starts asking, ‘Why is the flour jar not in its proper place? Who bit the head off this sprat? What’s happened to that cup I had last year? Where is yesterday’s garlic? Who’s been nibbling at this olive?’ Whereas before Euripides came along they just sat there staring blankly.
EURIPIDES Technical ability. A poet should also teach people how to be better citizens.
AESCHYLUS […] Schoolboys have a master to teach them, adults have poets. We have a duty to see that what we teach them is right and proper.
AESCHYLUS Look, you fool, noble themes and sentiments need to be couched in suitably dignified language. If your characters are demigods, they should sound like demigods – what’s more, they should dress like them. I set an example in this respect, which you totally perverted.
EURIPIDES How?
AESCHYLUS By dressing your kings in rags so that they appear as objects of pity.
EURIPIDES What harm is there in that?
AESCHYLUS Well, these days you can’t get the wealthy to pay their ship levy. They dress up in rags and claim exemption on the grounds of poverty.
AESCHYLUS And look how you’ve encouraged people to babble. The wrestling schools are empty. And where have all the young men gone? Off to these notorious establishments where they practise the art of debating – and that’s not all they practise either! These days even the sailors argue with their officers; in my day the only words they knew were ‘slops’ and ‘heave-ho’!
EURIPIDES [after some thought]
I loathe a citizen who acts so fast
To harm his country and yet helps her last,
Who’s deft at managing his own success,
But useless when the city’s in a mess.
AESCHYLUS
It is not very wise for city states
To rear a lion cub within their gates;
But if they do so, they will find it pays
To tolerate its own peculiar ways.
CHORUS
[…]
So it’s not smart to sit and chat
With Socrates, tossing aside
Artistic merit, shedding all
That’s best of the tragedian’s art.
To fritter away all one’s time
On quibbling and pretentious talk,
And other such inane pursuits,
Is truly the mark of a fool.
CHORUS
[…]
To the city’s counsels may he wisdom lend;
Then of war and suffering shall there be an end.
