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 man is better suited to reform Athenians and save their swiftly collapsing, morally debased city. To help Dionysus determine which poet is better, Pluto provides a variety of measuring tools, including a scale to determine which poet’s poetry is “weightier.” Metaphorically, the scale represents the value in engaging in poetry critically—in measuring a poem’s thematic depth, structure, and rhythmic elements in order to assess a poem’s artistic worth. In the contest, Euripides argues that poetry should depict the world as it is—for this reason, he writes in simple, clear language (the language ordinary people would use and be able to relate to and understand), and he portrays characters as normal, flawed people. He also values poetry’s ability to teach the reader to think and to question the world around them. Meanwhile, Aeschylus takes issue with Euripides’s approach, instead asserting that poetry ought to depict the ideal world—that is, the world as it should be. For this reason, he uses floral, lofty language in his poetry, prioritizing style and beauty. His characters are noble and idealized—they depict what his audience should aspire to be, not what they are.
However, though the contest proves Aeschylus to be the technically superior poet (as confirmed by the scale), this isn’t why Dionysus ultimately decides to bring Aeschylus back to Athens. Instead, Dionysus declares that he “shall select the man [his] soul desires.” Dionysus’s statement reaffirms the sentiment that inspired his journey to Hades in the first place—a passionate desire for Euripides and his poetry. In a broader sense, it suggests that engaging with poetry involves more than technical craft—it’s also about poetry’s ability to inspire great emotion in its audience. The Frogs thus shows that while engaging critically with art can allow people to better understand and appreciate good art, ultimately, art’s ability to inspire great emotion in its audience is just as important as its technical, rhetorical strength.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Literary Criticism ThemeTracker
Literary Criticism Quotes in The Frogs
DIONYSUS I need a poet who can really write. Nowadays it seems like ‘many are gone, and those that live are bad’.
XANTHIAS Weighing poetry? What, like slices of meat?
SLAVE Oh, yes, it’s all got to be measured properly, with rulers, yardsticks, compasses and wedges, and god knows what else.
XANTHIAS A regular torture chamber.
AESCHYLUS My plays have outlived me so I don’t have them to hand down here. His died with him. But never mind. Let’s have a contest, if we must, by all means.
CHORUS
We’re expecting, of course, to pick up a few tips
From these poets so clever and wise,
As elegant utterance falls from their lips
And their temperatures gradually rise.
Since neither is lacking in brains or in grit
It should be a thrilling debate:
While one pins his hopes on his neatly turned wit,
The other relies on his weight.
For shrewd dialectic he cares not a jot;
Though traps be contrived for his fall,
He’ll swoop down like thunder and quell the lot –
Quips, quibbles, his rival and all!
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 Well, now, look at the characters I left him. Fine, stalwart figures, larger than life. Men who didn’t shirk their duty. My heroes weren’t like these marketplace loafers, delinquents and rogues they write about nowadays. They were real heroes, breathing spears and lances, white-plumed helmets, breastplates and greaves; heroes with hearts of oxhide, seven layers thick.
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.
DIONYSUS I’ll judge between you on this score alone: I shall select the man my soul desires.
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.
