The Frogs
Performed at the Lenaia in 405 BCE, just before Athens's final defeat in the Peloponnesian War. The god Dionysus descends to Hades to bring back a great tragedian, and stages a contest between the recently deceased Aeschylus and Euripides to decide who should save the city. The play is a major source for ancient literary criticism and for how the Athenians understood the ethical role of poetry.
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