Deinon Eribremetas : The Sound and Sense of Aeschylus in Aristophanes' Frogs

This paper examines key elements in Frogs' "sound-portrait" of Aeschylus: 1) the aural impressions created by the character Aeschylus and 2) the sounds of the lyric passages that parody songs in Aeschylus' tragedies (i.e., Frogs 814–829 and 1265–1294). Among other points, it argues that Aristophanes' Aeschylus would have aurally evoked the comic stereotype of demagogues, as exemplified by the Paphlagonian in Knights. Its conclusion is that the sound-portrait of Aeschylus is one of several factors that helps make Frogs a sophisticated "interrogative" comedy that pointedly complicates its own political vision.