The Frogs (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Aristophanes
- First Published: 405
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Satire
- Time of Work: Fifth century
- Setting: The Underworld
- Genres: Satire, Drama, Comedy
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, Gods or goddesses, Heroes or heroism, Drama or dramatists, Greek or Roman times, Greece or Greek people, Underworld or Hades, Peloponnesian War
- Locales: Underworld, Hades
Characters Discussed
Dionysus (di-oh-NI-suhs), the god of wine and revelry, who combines in a farcical fashion many of the defects that the playwright ridiculed in his fellow Athenians—cowardice, egoism, lechery, effeminacy, and laziness—but is, nevertheless, the patron god of the drama. Inspired by a reading of Euripides’ Andromeda, he resolves to journey to Hades to bring the tragic poet back to Athens. To facilitate his entry to the Underworld, he disguises himself as his kinsman Herakles, who had earlier made the dangerous trip. This is a ludicrous idea,...
[The entire page is 919 words long]
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