



Produced by Ted Garvin, Marvin A. Hodges, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team









THE FROGS OF ARISTOPHANES

By Aristophanes

The Harvard Classics

Edited By Charles W Eliot Lld

Nine Greek Dramas

By AEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides And Aristophanes



Translations By

  E D A Morshead
  E H Plumptre
  Gilbert Murray
  And
  B B Rogers


With Introductions And Notes


VOLUME 8




INTRODUCTORY NOTE


Aristophanes, _the greatest of comic writers in Greek and in the
opinion of many, in any language, is the only one of the Attic
comedians any of whose works has survived in complete form He was born
in Athens about the middle of the fifth century B C, and had his first
comedy produced when he was so young that his name was withheld on
account of his youth. He is credited with over forty plays, eleven of
which survive, along with the names and fragments of some twenty-six
others. His satire deal with political, religious, and literary topics,
and with all its humor and fancy is evidently the outcome of profound
conviction and a genuine patriotism. The Attic comedy was produced at
the festivals of Dionysus, which were marked by great license, and to
this, rather than to the individual taste of the poet, must be ascribed
the undoubted coarseness of many of the jests. Aristophanes seems,
indeed, to have been regarded by his contemporaries as a man of noble
character. He died shortly after the production of his "Plutus," in 388
B. C.

"The Frogs" was produced the year after the death of Euripides, and
laments the