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The Frogs, and Other Plays. Translated with an Introd. by David Barrett Summary & Study Guide Description
The Frogs, and Other Plays. Translated with an Introd. by David Barrett Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:
This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion on The Frogs, and Other Plays. Translated with an Introd. by David Barrett by Aristophanes.
This collection is composed of three of Aristophanes best known and most interesting plays. Although Aristophanes is best known as a political satirist, while all these plays involve some political aspect, only Wasps is directly political.
Wasps is the story of a man addicted to sitting in judgment on others in court and the son that tries to save him. Philocleon, the old father of Bdelycleon, is addicted to serving on juries. In ancient Athens, any citizen could bring a suit against any other and the jurymen, who were paid to be there, would be able to decide the fat of the accused. In this play the litigious Athenian jurymen are portrayed as wasps with sharp stingers that they will use against those that stir up heir frenzy. Philocleon is the worst of the group though. He needs no provocation, taking joy out of inflicting punishment and passing judgment on others for its own sake. His son, fearing that his father has taken his love of judgment too far, attempts to lock his father in the house so he can't go to court. The father enlists the help of his fellow juror, the wasps, to help free him. Eventually the wasps agree to hear a trial between Philocleon and his son over whether or not the juries are used as a tool for the political elite. The son wins his case and the father is forced to quit his judging.
In The Poet and the Women, the playwright Euripides is afraid for his life because he believes that the women of Athens, tired of him slandering them in his plays are gathered during the festival of Demeter to sentence his to death. He convinces his cousin to dress up like a woman and infiltrate the women's assembly and to defend Euripides. Of course the cousin is found out and much of the play involves Euripides trying to free his cousin form the grips of the women and the state. Eventually Euripides swallows his pride and makes a deal with the women not to slander them if they will help him free his cousin.
Frogs is the story of the god Dionysus traveling down to Hades with his loyal slave to find Euripides and bring him back to earth. After several misadventures on the way to Hades, Dionysus finds Euripides and Aeschylus involved in a debate over who is the greatest dramatic poet. Dionysus agrees to hear each poet make their case to him and then he will decide who is the better poet and take them back to earth. After listening to a long and thorough debate, Dionysus decides on political grounds that he would rather take Aeschylus back to Athens with him because he will be more useful to the city. Frogs then ends with Sophocles snubbing Euripides and telling Aeschylus he will hold his place until he returns form Hades. Dionysus and Aeschylus then ascend to the workdof the living to help solve the political problems of Athens.
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This section contains 504 words (approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page) |