![]() After each is whipped, Dionysus is brought before Aeacus' masters, and the truth is verified. The terrified Dionysus tells the truth that he is a god. When Aeacus returns to confront the alleged Heracles (i.e., Xanthias), Xanthias offers him his "slave" (Dionysus) for torturing, to obtain the truth as to whether or not he is really a thief. Dionysus, back in the Heracles lion-skin, encounters more people angry at Heracles, and so he makes Xanthias trade a third time. But Dionysus quickly wants to trade back the clothes. She invites him to a feast with virgin dancing girls, and Xanthias is more than happy to oblige. A maid then arrives and is happy to see Heracles. Frightened, Dionysus trades clothes with Xanthias. Still angry over Heracles' theft of Cerberus, Aeacus threatens to unleash several monsters on him in revenge. The next encounter is with Aeacus, who mistakes Dionysus for Heracles due to his attire. A second chorus composed of spirits of Dionysian Mystics soon appear. When he arrives at the shore, Dionysus meets up with Xanthias, who teases him by claiming to see the frightening monster Empusa. Their croaking refrain – Brekekekèx-koàx-koáx ( Greek: Βρεκεκεκὲξ κοὰξ κοάξ) – greatly annoys Dionysus, who engages in a mocking debate ( agon) with the frogs. This is the point of the first choral interlude ( parodos), sung by the eponymous chorus of frogs (the only scene in which frogs feature in the play). Xanthias, being a slave, is not allowed in the boat, and has to walk around it, while Dionysus is made to help row the boat. When Dionysus arrives at the lake, Charon ferries him across. Dionysus opts for the longer journey, which Heracles himself had taken, across a lake (possibly Lake Acheron). When Dionysus asks which road is the quickest to get to Hades, Heracles tells him that he can hang himself, drink poison or jump off a tower. Heracles, upon seeing the effeminate Dionysus dressed up like himself, can't help laughing. Dionysus shows up at his doorstep dressed in a lion-hide and carrying a club. To find a reliable path to Hades, Dionysus seeks advice from his half-brother Heracles, who had been there before in order to retrieve the hell hound Cerberus. For the first half of the play, Dionysus routinely makes critical errors, forcing Xanthias to improvise in order to protect his master and prevent Dionysus from looking incompetent-but this only allows Dionysus to continue to make mistakes with no consequence. As the play opens, Xanthias and Dionysus argue over what kind of jokes Xanthias can use to open the play. (Euripides had died the year before, in 406 BC.) He brings along his slave Xanthias, who is smarter and braver than Dionysus. The Frogs tells the story of the god Dionysus, who, despairing of the state of Athens' tragedians, travels to Hades (the underworld) to bring the playwright Euripides back from the dead. Red-figure vase painting showing an actor dressed as Xanthias in The Frogs, standing next to a statuette of Heracles
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