The blog title is taken from Aristophanes' The Frogs, in which the titular frogs only appear as Dionysus is crossing the river Styx with Charon. They appear to annoy Dionysus, then leave. The greeks apparently thought that frogs went brekekekex koax koax instead of ribbit ribbit. Oh how far we moderns have advanced our understanding of the world! And, in keeping with our theme from last post, did you know that it was customary for Greek actors to wear oversized phalluses (phalli?) as part of their costumes when performing comedies? This isn't to deflate the sense of grandeur in the ancient Greek's writings, but to hint that maybe grandeur doesn't have to be desexualized, like it was during the Enlightenment. But, I won't bore you with lectures on antiquity.
As a side note, there's a dreadful musical version of Aristophanes play, written by Stephen Sondheim.
Silly Greeks, didn't even know that frogs went ribbit.
ReplyDeleteAnd silly man, of course we want to be bored by lectures on antiquity. Why else would we be reading this?
Tales of debauchery in Athens? I'll work on the lectures.
ReplyDeleteOnly Californnia frogs say ribbit ribbit. In the rest of the Americas and presumably in the old world frogs speak a different language. Koax koax sounds good to me. As does grouxarh arh arh, grouxarh arh arh, which I heard all one long nnight a few years ago.
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