You see, the way your prologues are written, you can fit in anything: bottle of oil, pieces of wool, bag of old rag."Īnd he proves this, too. "Even without splitting hairs over every word, I assure you I can demolish any prologue of yours with. To this, Aeschylus replies by charging him of metrical monotony. There is no irrelevant padding in his prologues. He says that aeschylus has a habit of saying the same thing twice over-a thing he himself has never done. He alleges that Aeschylus uses an obscure and repetitious style. In the next two rounds, it is again Euripides who is the first to attack his rival. Aeschylus retorts by saying that he has always maintained a high heroic standard and incited the citizens to virtue and selfless patriotism.The first round ends inconclusively. Aeschylus, says Euripides, is a conservative artist and an ardent admirer of the heroic. He says that he has written for the people, has taught them to speak with fluency, and also to be inquisitive. But Euripides defends himself saying that he is a realist, bringing tragedy down to earth. Aeschylus angrily accuses Euripides of abusing time-honoured dramatic conventions, and says that Euripides 'deserves to die' for this audacity'. He claims that his openings are never difficult, since the very first character gives the background story at once. He has never indulged in high-sounding bombasts and never kept his audience confused as to the identity of a character. His plots and characters are realistic, and unlike Aeschylus, he has never portrayed in his plays "hippococks or goatstagsor. Euripides answers with the claim that his plays are lucid and plausible, and have meaning for all. However, he asks Euripides to speak about his own contributions to the dramatic art. The extra silent characterserves little dramatic purpose its long silence is as boring as its words are incomprehensible.Notably, there is little reply to these charges of stylistic weakness an indignant Aeschylus rises to counter the criticism, but words fail him. The agon in The Frogs begins at line 895 and continues to 1094.) or the contest- scene, which contains the main bulk of the carefully-designed literary criticism/discussion.Įuripides contention here is that Aeschylus' plays are slow- moving undramatic, turgid and obscure. ![]() The contest between Aeschylus and Euripides over the seat of honour for the best dramatist in the nether world takes place in the agon (agon is the scene in which a debate between two poets takes place. Before he is able to do so, the superiority of Aeschylus against his challenger Euripides has to be established in a keenly-fought contest. He later returns with Aeschylus, who he considers is the right person with the right advice for the hapless Athenians. ![]() The patron-god of drama has no alternatives but to go to the nether world, as all the great poets of Athens are by now dead. Dionysus journey to Hades in search of a poet who could 'save the City occupies the centre stage in the play. He does this very skilfully, by integrating his views on literature in general and the two poets in particular into the main dramatic action. He seems here to deal with the things related to literature and theatre. However, Aristophanes' The Frogs is different from the usual trend. ![]() Charon refuses to take Xanthias on the boat, and so he has to walk around.Literary discussions are not the type of things one looks for in a comic play. The frogs seem to be very well informed about the mortals. The chorus of frogs sings during the boat trip, and they and Dionysus fight.
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