![]() 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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