Compare and Contrast how Aristophanes depicts Euripides in "The Frogs" and "The Poet and The Women".

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Richard Lawson                                                        Miss Francis

Classical Civilisation Coursework

Compare and Contrast how Aristophanes depicts Euripides in “The Frogs” and “The Poet and The Women”.

Aristophanes and Euripides were poets in Athens during the Peloponnesian War.  They had very different writing styles.  Euripides was the older and he wrote Greek Tragedy and Comedy.  He was one of the three important tragedy writers of the time, the others were Aeschylus an Scophocles.  Euripides introduced new methods of handling the traditional myths, for example he used realism in his subject matter and was interested in the way women thought and how they acted.  This is shown in his plays “Hippolytus” and “The Trojan Women”.  Aristophanes wrote comedies in which inventive situations and colourful language were typical.  His poems were mainly concerned with situation which was topical at that time.  He satirized politicians and scholars and parodied his fellow poets.  He used political and social fantasy a great deal as in the women’s sex strike in “Lysistrata”.  Aristophanes wrote two parodies which featured the tragic poet Euripides.  These were “The Poet and the Women” and the “Frogs”.  Euripides died before Aristophanes wrote the “Frogs” and so he was able to make the parody greater.

Aristophenes wrote “The Poet and the Women” while Euripides was still alive and a respected and famous author.  Aristophanes was unable to resist making fun of him in his play.   He portrayed him as a man who was clumsy and in fear for his life, “This day is to decide whether Euripides is to live or die.” (Page 102).  This was because Euripides was being threatened by the women of Athens who wanted to kill him because his plays showed the worst side of women, “the women are meeting up at the Thesmorporia today and they’re going to condemn me to death for slandering them” (Page 106).  Euripides knew that the Thesmophoria, a religious festival for women, was going to happen soon and he wanted to send a spy to find out how the women were plotting his death.  Euripides, with the help of his friend Agathon, therefore, persuaded his elderly relative Mnesilochus to dress up a woman, “lend me a dress and a headband for my friend here? You can’t pretend that you don’t possess such things” (Page 108), and attend the ceremony.  Mnesilochus was discovered by the women who captured him and threatened to burn him as they believed him to be a spy for Euripides.  Mnesilochis remembering one of Euripides plays sent a message “A trick out of one of his own plays, The Palamedes.  Chap wrote a message on an oarblade” (Page 125).  Euripides came to the rescue as a character out of that play showing courage he did not have, “Thou lookst like Menelaos.” (Page 133).

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  In “The Frogs”, Euripides has been dead for some time and is portrayed as manipulative and greedy, “besides, Euripides will be readier to sneak away with me, he’s a much more slippery customer” (Page 159).  The storyline is about the God of Wine, Dionysus, who travels to the underworld to find a poet who will increase Athenian morale and lead them to victory in the Peloponnesian War.  After first consulting the hero, Hercules, to find a way to Hades “You could go via Rope and Gibbet: that’s a very quick way, if you don’t mind hanging around for ...

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