The Frogs

Frogs was staged at the Lenaia of 405, which took place in January. At this time, Athens was on the brink of utter defeat. It faced a shortage of financial resources, rowers for its navy, and manpower more generally. Athens had rejected several generous peace offers from Sparta and, in an ironic twist, had executed or exiled the generals who won at the battle of Arginousai. This punishment was enacted  because a storm prevented the generals from recovering the bodies of drowned sailors who could not then be returned home for burial. By the end of 405, the Spartans had defeated Athens at the Battle of Aigospotami and destroyed their fleet. By 404, Athens was besieged and starved into surrender.

To what extent Athenians who attended the 405 Lenaia could anticipate the fate that awaited them is impossible to say. Whatever the case, Frogs is preoccupied with the question of which values will save Athens. The play communicates mixed messages as to which playwright and value system will best serve the city, though it seems nostalgically self-aware that the deaths of Sophokles and Euripides signaled the end of an ascendant age for Athens.

It is possible the play means to offer advice that the city should act on, via the benign suggestions that they should not allow anger to cloud their judgment, practice forgiveness, and choose the best leaders moving forward.