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Aristophanes · Frogs Βάτραχοι

Aristophanes, Frogs 464–502: Episode: Aeacus takes Dionysus for Heracles; the change of clothes

Ancient Sources / Aristophanes / Frogs / 464–502

Aeacus takes Dionysus in his lion's skin for Heracles, who stole Cerberus, and threatens him with the hell-hounds, the Asp, the Lamprey and the Gorgons. Dionysus faints and asks for a sponge for his heart, and then proposes that they change clothes so that Xanthias takes the club and lion's skin. A maid then welcomes the supposed Heracles.

Lines 464–502 · 332 words · click a number to copy its link
464–471
Διόνυσος 464παῖ παῖ. Ἄιακος τίς οὗτος; Διόνυσος Ἡρακλῆς ὁ καρτερός. Ἄιακος 465ὦ βδελυρὲ κἀναίσχυντε καὶ τολμηρὲ σὺ καὶ μιαρὲ καὶ παμμίαρε καὶ μιαρώτατε, ὃς τὸν κύνʼ ἡμῶν ἐξελάσας τὸν Κέρβερον ἀπῇξας ἄγχων κἀποδρὰς ᾤχου λαβών, ὃν ἐγὼ ʼφύλαττον. ἀλλὰ νῦν ἔχει μέσος· 470τοία Στυγός σε μελανοκάρδιος πέτρα Ἀχερόντιός τε σκόπελος αἱματοσταγὴς

AEACUS O, villain, villain, arrant vilest villain!. Who seized our Cerberus by the throat, and fled, And ran, and rushed, and bolted, haling off The dog, my charge! But now I’ve got thee fast. So close the Styx’s inky-hearted rock, The blood-bedabbled peak of Acheron Shall hem thee in: the hell-hounds of Cocytus Prowl round thee; whilst the hundred-headed Asp

472–490
Ἄιακος 472φρουροῦσι, Κωκυτοῦ τε περίδρομοι κύνες, ἔχιδνά θʼ ἑκατογκέφαλος, ἣ τὰ σπλάγχνα σου διασπαράξει, πλευμόνων τʼ ἀνθάψεται 475Ταρτησία μύραινα· τὼ νεφρὼ δέ σου αὐτοῖσιν ἐντέροισιν ᾑματωμένω διασπάσονται Γοργόνες Τειθράσιαι, ἐφʼ ἃς ἐγὼ δρομαῖον ὁρμήσω πόδα. Ξανθίας οὗτος τί δέδρακας; Διόνυσος ἐγκέχοδα· κάλει θεόν. Ξανθίας 480ὦ καταγέλαστʼ οὔκουν ἀναστήσει ταχὺ πρίν τινά σʼ ἰδεῖν ἀλλότριον; Διόνυσος ἀλλʼ ὡρακιῶ. ἀλλʼ οἶσε πρὸς τὴν καρδίαν μου σφογγιάν. Ξανθίας ἰδοὺ λαβέ, προσθοῦ. Διόνυσος ποῦ ʼστιν; Ξανθίας ὦ χρυσοῖ θεοὶ ἐνταῦθʼ ἔχεις τὴν καρδίαν; Διόνυσος δείσασα γὰρ 485ἐς τὴν κάτω μου κοιλίαν καθείρπυσεν. Ξανθίας ὦ δειλότατε θεῶν σὺ κἀνθρώπων. Διόνυσος ἐγώ; πῶς δειλὸς ὅστις σφογγιὰν ᾔτησά σε; οὐκ ἂν ἕτερός γʼ αὔτʼ ἠργάσατʼ ἀνήρ. Ξανθίας ἀλλὰ τί; Διόνυσος κατέκειτʼ ἂν ὀσφραινόμενος, εἴπερ δειλὸς ἦν· 490ἐγὼ δʼ ἀνέστην καὶ προσέτʼ ἀπεψησάμην.

AEACUS Shall rive thy heart-strings: the Tartesian Lamprey Prey on thy lungs: and those Tithrasian Gorgons Mangle and tear thy kidneys, mauling them,— Entrails and all, into one bloody mash. I’ll speed a running foot to fetch them hither.

XANTHIAS Hallo! what now?

DIONYSUS I’ve done it: call the god.

XANTHIAS Get up, you laughing-stock; get up directly, Before you’re seen.

DIONYSUS What, get up? I’m fainting. Please dab a sponge of water on my heart.

XANTHIAS Here!

DIONYSUS Dab it, you.

XANTHIAS Where? O, ye golden gods, Lies your heart here?

DIONYSUS It got so terrified It fluttered down into my stomach’s pit..

XANTHIAS Cowardliest of gods and men!

DIONYSUS The cowardliest? I? What I, who asked you for a sponge, a thing A coward never would have done!

XANTHIAS What then?

DIONYSUS A coward would have lain there wallowing; But I stood up, and wiped myself withal.

XANTHIAS Poseidon! quite heroic.

DIONYSUS ’Deed I think so. But weren’t you frightened at those dreadful threats

491–502
Ξανθίας 491ἀνδρεῖά γʼ ὦ Πόσειδον. Διόνυσος οἶμαι νὴ Δία. σὺ δʼ οὐκ ἔδεισας τὸν ψόφον τῶν ῥημάτων καὶ τὰς ἀπειλάς; Ξανθίας οὐ μὰ Δίʼ οὐδʼ ἐφρόντισα. Διόνυσος ἴθι νυν ἐπειδὴ ληματίας κἀνδρεῖος εἶ, 495σὺ μὲν γενοῦ ʼγὼ τὸ ῥόπαλον τουτὶ λαβὼν καὶ τὴν λεοντῆν, εἴπερ ἀφοβόσπλαγχνος εἶ· ἐγὼ δʼ ἔσομαί σοι σκευοφόρος ἐν τῷ μέρει. Ξανθίας φέρε δὴ ταχέως αὔτʼ· οὐ γὰρ ἀλλὰ πειστέον· καὶ βλέψον ἐς τὸν Ἡρακλειοξανθίαν, 500εἰ δειλὸς ἔσομαι καὶ κατὰ σὲ τὸ λῆμʼ ἔχων. Διόνυσος μὰ Δίʼ ἀλλʼ ἀληθῶς οὑκ Μελίτης μαστιγίας. φέρε νυν ἐγὼ τὰ στρώματʼ αἴρωμαι ταδί.

DIONYSUS And shoutings?

XANTHIAS Frightened? Not a bit. I cared not.

DIONYSUS Come then, if you’re so very brave a man, Will you be I, and take the hero’s club And lion’s skin, since you’re so monstrous plucky? And I’ll be now the slave, and bear the luggage.

XANTHIAS Hand them across. I cannot choose but take them, And now observe the Xanthio-heracles If I’m a coward and a sneak like you.

DIONYSUS Nay, you’re the rogue from Melite’s own self. And I’ll pick up and carry on the traps.

MAID O welcome, Heracles! come in, sweetheart. My Lady, when they told her, set to work,

People and places in this passage

Passages in other works that tell of the same people and places, oldest and closest first.

  1. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 25.80–193Book 25: The feats of Perseus and Minos set against those of Dionysos
  2. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 47.594–741Book 47: Dionysos fights Perseus; Hermes ends the war; Argos honours the god
  3. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.25.1–4.27.5Heracles: Hades, Orpheus and the Hesperides
  4. Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.396–562The Minyades become bats; Athamas and Ino
  5. Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.2.1–6Athens: from Piraeus to the Ceramicus, tomb of Antiope, early kings
  6. Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy (Posthomerica) 6.200–334The shield of Eurypylus

English translation by Benjamin Bickley Rogers (1919). Original text: Greek text: F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds.), Aristophanis Comoediae, Oxford Classical Texts, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906-1907, as digitised by Perseus. English: Benjamin Bickley Rogers, The Frogs of Aristophanes, second edition, London: G. Bell and Sons, 1919.

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, Greek: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library); translation public domain (Rogers). Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.