59. The Frogs and Other Plays (The Wasps & The Poet and the Women) by Aristophanes, translated by David Barrett
translation 1964
format: 217 page Penguin Classic paperback, 1966 re-print
acquired: 2006, from my neighbor
read: Sep 6-8
rating: 3½ stars

The play The Frogs is a gem, and includes maybe the earliest literary criticism available, albeit done in humor. The other two plays were more like meh sitcoms, or maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

Greek comedy had a long history and even the tragic playwrights wrote raunchy, silly comedies in the form of satyr plays. But that's all lost. Aristophanes is the only representative of Old Greek Comedy remaining. We have eleven of his plays. In general they are raunchy and funny, but also have very serious points, even direct political advice for wartime Athens.

The Wasps 422 bce

Aristophanes mocks on the Athenian leader at the time, Creon. Here an old father, named Procleon, is obsessed with being a juror in Athenian courts everyday. He only convicts. His wealthy son, named Anticleon, tries to curtail this obsession, even imprisoning Procleon in their home. The wasps are a group of old cranky jurors who come to bring Procleon to court. They form the chorus.

Aristophanes was somewhere around 20 years old when this was produced, which was very young for Athenian playwrights. That's maybe impressive or maybe just why the play seems immature. I never could really get into it.

The Poet and the Women 411 bce
(aka: Thesmophoriazusae, or Women at the Thesmophoria)

Euripides was famous for treating women poorly in his plays, even though he really has strong female roles. He made fun of this criticism of himself in his own plays. Here, Aristophanes plays on this idea in a ridiculous way. I can see this working well in performance.

Themophoria was an all-women religious ritual. Euripides is afraid because he heard the women are so upset about his treatment of women in his plays that they are going to work out revenge against him during the festival. He recruits an aged, and bearded in-law to dress as a woman, infiltrate the gathering and defend him. Things don't work out quite as planned.

The Frogs 405 bce

By the time this play was performed Athens had all but lost the its 30-year war with Sparta. It is quite amazing that Athens still held this festivals for these comedies and even still allowed public criticism of the government within them...even if it is provided by a chorus of croaking frogs. (Aristophanes would continue to write plays after Athens did lose, but they no longer contain political criticism. It seems this was may no longer have been permitted. )

The depressing real world position of Athens makes this play quite meaningful and touching. Aristophanes was trying to be funny, and give his commentary, but how to find a form that would be watchable at this time? He seems to have pulled it off.

Sophocles and Euripides have passed away (in real life too) and left Athens without a poet to help them in their desperate need. The God Dionysos decides he must go down to Hades and bring Euripides back to Athens to save the city. (Silly elements include Dionysos's poor-luck assistant who must carry his gear, and the leopard coat he wears to disguise himself as Herakles. At one point, in the underworld, he tries to hire a corpse to carry his stuff - the corpse refuses.)

Instead of rescuing Euripides, Dionysos holds a competition between Euripides and Aeschylus to find which one is better to bring back and help Athens. Both playwrights read parts of their plays (some parts of which are otherwise lost) and then get judged. They both come out pretty badly, but Dionysos decides Athens needs old Aeschylus more and declares him the winner.

As for the frogs, they croak and give direct advice to Dionysos on how to help Athens, naming names.

2016
https://www.librarything.com/topic/226898#5725422

I read The Wasps out of a sort of academic interest and didn't expect to really enjoy it and certainly not to find myself laughing at 2400 year old jokes. I have nothing bad to say about this play! It was Procleon's fainting that really got me chuckling; but the slapstick when he's trying to escape from his house and the interplay between father and son and superbly done; the masterstroke of imagination that has cooking utensils taking to the stage and the ironic reversal of position at the end. I can see why people have taken the trouble to preserve the text through the centuries. The translator also has a sense of humour (see note 51) and his introduction, covering the staging and structure is excellent.

Nothing could live up to that, of course, but the other plays here are also superb.

I since read some of Aristophanes' other plays by different translators and there's a zing to Barrett's that others lack. ( )

2500 years later they are still hysterical. Even funnier if you've studied ancient Athens and get even some of the jokes.

I just can't believe these plays are as old as they are. Aristophanes persistently engages directly with his audience on contemporary political, moral, and social issues in a way that really surprised me. Some of the characters he lampoons are instantly recognizable and most of the topics he treats remain relevant. Best of all, it's actually still funny in a low-brow, "laugh before you think about it" sort of way. I'd so go to see one of these plays. ( )

Oh Frogs, Frogs, I do love you.