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Aristophanes · Frogs Βάτραχοι

Aristophanes, Frogs 1173–1215: Agon: the prologue of Oedipus and the bottle of oil

Ancient Sources / Aristophanes / Frogs / 1173–1215

Dionysus points out that Aeschylus is speaking to the dead, who cannot hear, and Euripides says that his own prologues contain nothing said twice. Aeschylus takes Euripides' line that Oedipus was happy at first and shows that he was unhappy from birth, as he was exposed in a pot, limped away and married his own mother. Euripides recites more prologues, and Aeschylus finishes each with 'lost his bottle of oil'.

Lines 1173–1215 · 374 words · click a number to copy its link
1173–1186
Αἰσχύλος 1173κλύειν ἀκοῦσαι. Εὐριπίδης τοῦθʼ ἕτερον αὖθις λέγει, κλύειν ἀκοῦσαι, ταὐτὸν ὂν σαφέστατα. Διόνυσος 1175τεθνηκόσιν γὰρ ἔλεγεν ὦ μόχθηρε σύ, οἷς οὐδὲ τρὶς λέγοντες ἐξικνούμεθα. Αἰσχύλος σὺ δὲ πῶς ἐποίεις τοὺς προλόγους; Εὐριπίδης ἐγὼ φράσω. κἄν που δὶς εἴπω ταὐτόν, ἢ στοιβὴν ἴδῃς ἐνοῦσαν ἔξω τοῦ λόγου, κατάπτυσον. Διόνυσος 1180ἴθι δὴ λέγʼ· οὐ γάρ μοὔστιν ἀλλʼ ἀκουστέα τῶν σῶν προλόγων τῆς ὀρθότητος τῶν ἐπῶν. Εὐριπίδης ἦν Οἰδίπους τὸ πρῶτον εὐδαίμων ἀνήρ— Αἰσχύλος μὰ τὸν Δίʼ οὐ δῆτʼ, ἀλλὰ κακοδαίμων φύσει, ὅντινά γε πρὶν φῦναι μὲν Ἁπόλλων ἔφη 1185ἀποκτενεῖν τὸν πατέρα, πρὶν καὶ γεγονέναι· πῶς οὗτος ἦν τὸ πρῶτον εὐδαίμων ἀνήρ;

DIONYSUS Aye, but he’s speaking to the dead, you knave, Who cannot hear us though we call them thrice.

AESCHYLUS And how do you make your prologues?

EURIPIDES You shall hear; And if you find one single thing said twice, Or any useless padding, spit upon me.

DIONYSUS Well, fire away: I’m all agog to hear Your very accurate and faultless prologues.

EURIPIDES A happy man was Oedipus at first—

AESCHYLUS Not so, by Zeus; a most unhappy man. Who, not yet born nor yet conceived, Apollo Foretold would be his father’s murderer. How could he be a happy man at first.

EURIPIDES Then he became the wretchedest of men.

AESCHYLUS Not so, by Zeus; he never ceased to be.

1187–1206
Εὐριπίδης 1187εἶτʼ ἐγένετʼ αὖθις ἀθλιώτατος βροτῶν. Αἰσχύλος μὰ τὸν Δίʼ οὐ δῆτʼ, οὐ μὲν οὖν ἐπαύσατο. πῶς γάρ; ὅτε δὴ πρῶτον μὲν αὐτὸν γενόμενον 1190χειμῶνος ὄντος ἐξέθεσαν ἐν ὀστράκῳ, ἵνα μὴ ʼκτραφεὶς γένοιτο τοῦ πατρὸς φονεύς· εἶθʼ ὡς Πόλυβον ἤρρησεν οἰδῶν τὼ πόδε· ἔπειτα γραῦν ἔγημεν αὐτὸς ὢν νέος καὶ πρός γε τούτοις τὴν ἑαυτοῦ μητέρα· 1195εἶτʼ ἐξετύφλωσεν αὑτόν. Διόνυσος εὐδαίμων ἄρʼ ἦν, εἰ κἀστρατήγησέν γε μετʼ Ἐρασινίδου. Εὐριπίδης ληρεῖς· ἐγὼ δὲ τοὺς προλόγους καλοὺς ποιῶ. Αἰσχύλος καὶ μὴν μὰ τὸν Δίʼ οὐ κατʼ ἔπος γέ σου κνίσω τὸ ῥῆμʼ ἕκαστον, ἀλλὰ σὺν τοῖσιν θεοῖς 1200ἀπὸ ληκυθίου σου τοὺς προλόγους διαφθερῶ. Εὐριπίδης ἀπὸ ληκυθίου σὺ τοὺς ἐμούς; Αἰσχύλος ἑνὸς μόνου. ποιεῖς γὰρ οὕτως ὥστʼ ἐναρμόττειν ἅπαν, καὶ κῳδάριον καὶ ληκύθιον καὶ θύλακον, ἐν τοῖς ἰαμβείοισι. δείξω δʼ αὐτίκα. Εὐριπίδης 1205ἰδού, σὺ δείξεις; Αἰσχύλος φημί. Διόνυσος καὶ δὴ χρὴ λέγειν. Εὐριπίδης Αἴγυπτος, ὡς ὁ πλεῖστος ἔσπαρται λόγος,

AESCHYLUS No sooner born, than they exposed the babe, (And that in winter), in an earthen crock, Lest he should grow a man, and slay his father. Then with both ankles pierced and swoln, he limped Away to Polybus: still young, he married An ancient crone, and her his mother too. Then scratched out both his eyes.

DIONYSUS Happy indeed Had he been Erasinides’s colleague!

EURIPIDES Nonsense; I say my prologues are firstrate.

AESCHYLUS Nay then, by Zeus, no longer line by line I’ll maul your phrases: but with heaven to aid. I’ll smash your prologues with a bottle of oil.

EURIPIDES You mine with a bottle of oil?

AESCHYLUS With only one. You frame your prologues so that each and all Fit in with a “bottle of oil,” or “coverlet-skin,” Or “‘reticule-bag.”” I’ll prove it here, and now.

EURIPIDES You’ll prove it? You?

AESCHYLUS I will.

DIONYSUS Well then, begin.

EURIPIDES Aegyptus, sailing with his fifty sous,

1207–1215
Εὐριπίδης 1207ξὺν παισὶ πεντήκοντα ναυτίλῳ πλάτῃ Ἄργος κατασχών— Αἰσχύλος ληκύθιον ἀπώλεσεν. Διόνυσος τουτὶ τί ἦν τὸ ληκύθιον; οὐ κλαύσεται; 1210λέγʼ ἕτερον αὐτῷ πρόλογον, ἵνα καὶ γνῶ πάλιν. Εὐριπίδης Διόνυσος, ὃς θύρσοισι καὶ νεβρῶν δοραῖς καθαπτὸς ἐν πεύκαισι Παρνασσὸν κάτα πηδᾷ χορεύων— Αἰσχύλος ληκύθιον ἀπώλεσεν. Διόνυσος οἴμοι πεπλήγμεθʼ αὖθις ὑπὸ τῆς ληκύθου. Εὐριπίδης 1215ἀλλʼ οὐδὲν ἔσται πρᾶγμα· πρὸς γὰρ τουτονὶ

EURIPIDES As ancient legends mostly tell the tale, Touching at Argos

AESCHYLUS Lost his bottle of oil.

EURIPIDES Hang it, what’s that? Confound that bottle of oil!

DIONYSUS Give him another: let him try again.

EURIPIDES Bacchus, who, clad in fawnskins, leaps and bounds With torch and thyrsus in the choral dance Along Parnassus

AESCHYLUS Lost his bottle of oil.

DIONYSUS Ah me, we are stricken—with that bottle again!

EURIPIDES Pooh, pooh, that’s nothing. I’ve a prologue here, He’ll never tack his bottle of oil to this: No man is blest in every single thing.

People and places in this passage

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

  1. Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.5.1–9Dionysus, Pentheus, Niobe and Oedipus
  2. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 48.0–181Book 48: The Giants attack Dionysos; he wrestles Pallene
  3. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 47.594–741Book 47: Dionysos fights Perseus; Hermes ends the war; Argos honours the god

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.