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Aristophanes · Frogs Βάτραχοι

Aristophanes, Frogs 732–777: Episode: Aeacus and Xanthias; the dead quarrel over the tragic chair

Ancient Sources / Aristophanes / Frogs / 732–777

Aeacus says that the master of Xanthias is a true gentleman, and he and Xanthias compare the joys of grumbling, spying and cursing a master behind his back. A great noise breaks out from within. Aeacus tells Xanthias that the dead are rioting over the rule that the best poet of each craft takes the chair at Pluto's table.

Lines 732–777 · 392 words · click a number to copy its link
732–745b
Χορός 732ὑστάτοις ἀφιγμένοισιν, οἷσιν ἡ πόλις πρὸ τοῦ οὐδὲ φαρμακοῖσιν εἰκῇ ῥᾳδίως ἐχρήσατʼ ἄν. ἀλλὰ καὶ νῦν ὦνόητοι μεταβαλόντες τοὺς τρόπους 735χρῆσθε τοῖς χρηστοῖσιν αὖθις· καὶ κατορθώσασι γὰρ εὔλογον, κἄν τι σφαλῆτʼ, ἐξ ἀξίου γοῦν τοῦ ξύλου, ἤν τι καὶ πάσχητε, πάσχειν τοῖς σοφοῖς δοκήσετε. Ἄιακος νὴ τὸν Δία τὸν σωτῆρα γεννάδας ἀνὴρ ὁ δεσπότης σου. Ξανθίας πῶς γὰρ οὐχὶ γεννάδας, 740ὅστις γε πίνειν οἶδε καὶ βινεῖν μόνον; Ἄιακος τὸ δὲ μὴ πατάξαι σʼ ἐξελεγχθέντʼ ἄντικρυς, ὅτι δοῦλος ὢν ἔφασκες εἶναι δεσπότης. Ξανθίας ᾤμωξε μέντἄν. Ἄιακος τοῦτο μέντοι δουλικὸν εὐθὺς πεποίηκας, ὅπερ ἐγὼ χαίρω ποιῶν. Ξανθίας 745χαίρεις, ἱκετεύω; Ἄιακος μἀλλʼ ἐποπτεύειν δοκῶ,

CHORUS O unwise and foolish people, yet to mend your ways begin; Use again the good and useful: so hereafter, if ye win ’Twill be due to this your wisdom: if ye fall, at least ’twill be Not a fall that brings dishonour, falling from a worthy tree.

AEACUS By Zeus the Saviour, quite the gentleman Your master is.

XANTHIAS Gentleman? I believe you. He’s all for wine and women, is my master.

AEACUS But not to have flogged you, when the truth came out That you, the slave, were passing off as master

XANTHIAS He’d get the worst of that.

AEACUS Bravo! that’s spoken Like a true slave: that’s what I love myself.

XANTHIAS You love it, do you?

AEACUS Love it? I’m entranced

746–759b
Ἄιακος 746ὅταν καταράσωμαι λάθρᾳ τῷ δεσπότῃ. Ξανθίας τί δὲ τονθορύζων, ἡνίκʼ ἂν πληγὰς λαβὼν πολλὰς ἀπίῃς θύραζε; Ἄιακος καὶ τοῦθʼ ἥδομαι. Ξανθίας τί δὲ πολλὰ πράττων; Ἄιακος ὡς μὰ Δίʼ οὐδὲν οἶδʼ ἐγώ. Ξανθίας 750ὁμόγνιε Ζεῦ· καὶ παρακούων δεσποτῶν ἅττʼ ἂν λαλῶσι; Ἄιακος μἀλλὰ πλεῖν ἢ μαίνομαι. Ξανθίας τί δὲ τοῖς θύραζε ταῦτα καταλαλῶν; Ἄιακος ἐγώ; μὰ Δίʼ ἀλλʼ ὅταν δρῶ τοῦτο, κἀκμιαίνομαι. Ξανθίας ὦ Φοῖβʼ Ἄπολλον ἔμβαλέ μοι τὴν δεξιάν, 755καὶ δὸς κύσαι καὐτὸς κύσον, καί μοι φράσον πρὸς Διός, ὃς ἡμῖν ἐστιν ὁμομαστιγίας, τίς οὗτος οὕνδον ἐστὶ θόρυβος καὶ βοὴ χὠ λοιδορησμός; Ἄιακος Αἰσχύλου κεὐριπίδου. Ξανθίας ἆ. Ἄιακος πρᾶγμα πρᾶγμα μέγα κεκίνηται μέγα

AEACUS When I can curse my lord behind his back.

XANTHIAS How about grumbling, when you have felt the stick, And scurry out of doors?

AEACUS That’s jolly too.

XANTHIAS How about prying?

AEACUS That beats everything!

XANTHIAS Great Kin-god Zeus! And what of overhearing Your master’s secrets?

AEACUS What? I’m mad with joy.

XANTHIAS And blabbing them abroad?

AEACUS O heaven and earth! When I do that, I can’t contain myself.

XANTHIAS Phoebus Apollo! clap your hand in mine, Kiss and be kissed: and prithee tell me this, Tell me by Zeus, our rascaldom’s own god, What’s all that noise within? What means this hubbub And row?

AEACUS That’s Aeschylus and Euripides.

XANTHIAS Eh?

AEACUS Wonderful, wonderful things are going on. The dead are rioting, taking different sides.

XANTHIAS Why, what’s the matter?

AEACUS There’s a custom here

760–777
Ἄιακος 760ἐν τοῖς νεκροῖσι καὶ στάσις πολλὴ πάνυ. Ξανθίας ἐκ τοῦ; Ἄιακος νόμος τις ἐνθάδʼ ἐστὶ κείμενος ἀπὸ τῶν τεχνῶν ὅσαι μεγάλαι καὶ δεξιαί, τὸν ἄριστον ὄντα τῶν ἑαυτοῦ συντέχνων σίτησιν αὐτὸν ἐν πρυτανείῳ λαμβάνειν 765θρόνον τε τοῦ Πλούτωνος ἑξῆς— Ξανθίας μανθάνω. Ἄιακος ἕως ἀφίκοιτο τὴν τέχνην σοφώτερος ἕτερός τις αὐτοῦ· τότε δὲ παραχωρεῖν ἔδει. Ξανθίας τί δῆτα τουτὶ τεθορύβηκεν Αἰσχύλον; Ἄιακος ἐκεῖνος εἶχε τὸν τραγῳδικὸν θρόνον, 770ὡς ὢν κράτιστος τὴν τέχνην. Ξανθίας νυνὶ δὲ τίς; Ἄιακος ὅτε δὴ κατῆλθʼ Εὐριπίδης, ἐπεδείκνυτο τοῖς λωποδύταις καὶ τοῖσι βαλλαντιοτόμοις καὶ τοῖσι πατραλοίαισι καὶ τοιχωρύχοις, ὅπερ ἔστʼ ἐν Ἅιδου πλῆθος, οἱ δʼ ἀκροώμενοι 775τῶν ἀντιλογιῶν καὶ λυγισμῶν καὶ στροφῶν ὑπερεμάνησαν κἀνόμισαν σοφώτατον· κἄπειτʼ ἐπαρθεὶς ἀντελάβετο τοῦ θρόνου,

AEACUS With all the crafts, the good and noble crafts, That the chief master of his art in each Shall have his dinner in the assembly hall, ’And sit by Pluto’s side,

XANTHIAS I understand. Until another comes, more wise than he In the same art: then must the first give way. And how has this disturbed our Aeschylus? ’Twas he that occupied the tragic chair, As, in his craft, the noblest.

XANTHIAS Who does now? But when Euripides came down, he kept Flourishing off before the highwaymen, Thieves, burglars, parricides—these form our mob In Hades—till with listening to his twists And turns, and pleas and-counterpleas, they went Mad on the man, and hailed him first and wisest: Elate with this, he claimed the tragic chair

People and places in this passage

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

  1. Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.29.1–11Epidaurus and Aegina: the Aeaceum and the stories of Aeacus and Phocus
  2. Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.12.1–7Dardanus, Priam and the royal house of Troy
  3. Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.453–613Cephalus at Aegina; the plague
  4. Pindar, Olympian Odes 8.1–88Olympian 8: for Alcimedon — Aeacus and the walls of Troy
  5. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 13.201–308Book 13: Aiacos, Asterios and Aristaios join
  6. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.71.1–4.75.6Asclepius, Aeacus, Pelops and the kings of Troy

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.