Frogs

• Phrynicus: comic poet, competed against Aristophanes at the Lenaea
• Arginusae: 406 BC, unexpected victory for Athens, storm prevented the rescue of survivors and many drowned, generals were found guilty of failure and were trialed and executed, slaves who fought at the battle given citizenship
• Heracles: hero from Greek mythology
• Kothornoi: [tragic] actor’s boots
• Cleisthenes: wealthy Athenian, mocked for passive homosexuality
• Iphone: Sophocles’ son, playwright
• Agathon: Athenian tragic poet, appears in Plato’s Symposium
• Xenocles: tragic poet
• Charon: ferryman of the Greek underworld
• Eleusinian Mysteries: initiations held annually for the cult of Demeter and Persephone, considered the ‘most famous of the secret religious rites of Ancient Greece’
• Morsimus was a tragic poet.
• Cinesias was a dithyrambic poet.
• Pluto was the Greek god of the underworld.
• Archedemus was an outsider for not being presented to his phratry.
• Callias was an extremely wealthy Athenian and a torch bearer in the Eleusinian procession.
• Corinth was Sparta’s strongest ally.
• Alcibiades was an Athenian statesman and general who changed political allegiances many times and was part of the Oligarchic Coup.
• Aeacus was traditionally one of three judges of the dead, here he’s a doorman.
• Cerberus was the hound of Hades.
• Cocytus was an Underworld river.
• Gorgons: female monsters in Greek mythology, could turn anyone to stone by looking at them
• Alcmene: Heracles’ mother whom Zeus slept with in disguise
• Theramenes: powerful politician, part of Oligarchic Coup, friend of Alcibiades
• Hyperbolus: politician and demagogue
• Cleon: politician and demagogue who attempted to prosecute Aristophanes
• That pit: barathron, where criminals were thrown
• Attatai!!!: exclamation of pain
• Delos: island, birthplace of Apollo and Artemis
• Delphi: religious site of Apollo’s famous oracle
• Phrynicus: one of the Four Hundred (Oligarchic Coup)
• Plataean citizenship: refugees from Athens’ ally given citizenship
• Cleigenes: minor political figure
• Grocer’s sprout: Euripides’ background, mother sold vegetables
• Telephus: Euripides’ play
• Cephisophon: Euripides’ collaborator, slept with his wife
• Phrynicus: pioneer of early Athenian tragedy
• you’re not treading on the safest ground here: Euripides spent his final days in court
• Darius: Persian king defeated at Marathon
• Marathon: battle against Persians, won by Athenians
• Lamachus: general in Peloponnesian War