How The Frogs drew on The Iliad
A documented line of influence: Aristophanes demonstrably engaged Homer’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Iliad
Homer · c. 750 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
The Frogs
Aristophanes · 405 BCE
Ancient GreeceRelevance
5/10
On The Frogs’s page
- The poetry contest at the heart of The Frogs runs on Homer: Aeschylus claims his spirit "took its impress from Homer" and lists the heroes he dramatized
- Aristophanes parodies Homeric verse directly — the contest amalgamates passages from the Iliad — and patterns the whole scene on the legendary Contest of Homer and Hesiod
- The jokes land harder with the Iliad behind you: The Frogs assumes you already know the epic it's measuring its tragedians against
On The Iliad’s page
- Centuries later, Aristophanes puts the Iliad on trial — his Aeschylus declares his spirit "took its impress from Homer" and parodies Homeric verse directly in the underworld poetry contest
- That whole contest is patterned on the legendary Contest of Homer and Hesiod, with the Iliad claimed as the wellspring of Aeschylus's martial poetry
- The greatest war poem becomes the standard everyone in The Frogs is measured against