WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DONKEY? ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 172 f.
BY
C. W. DEARDEN
The problem of the production of Charon's boat 1) is one of the perennial chestnuts of Aristophanic study, yet one that theore- tically it ought to be fairly easy to solve, for, as Arnott has remark- ed 2), the movements of the characters in the early scenes of the Frogs can be plotted with considerable accuracy and this limits in certain respects the possibilities open to the producer. Dionysus and Xanthias open the play as with donkey and baggage they appear on their way to visit Heracles and then the Underworld. The conclusion that they enter through a parodos and journey across the orchestra seems unavoidable for no starting point is indicated for their journey and the donkey would pose problems elsewhere. At line 35 therefore, when Xanthias dismounts, the two climb onto the stage and approach Heracles' door. A conversation with Heracles occupies the next 130 lines before the two travellers bid him adieu and turn back to the orchestra to continue their journey. Xanthias bidden once more to pick up the baggage, pro- duces his customary complaint, suggests that Dionysus might consider hiring a corpse to take the luggage to Hades (167) and points out that one is being carried in. There is no indication of where the corpse comes from and again it seems reasonable to assume that it is simply carried in through one parodos across the orchestra and out through the other; Dionysus and Xanthias them-
1) For the purposes of this article the conclusions of T.B.L. Webster in Staging and Scenery in the Ancient Greek Theatre, BRL 42 (1959-60), 493 f. as to the existence in the Fifth Century Theatre of Dionysus of a low, narrow stage without wings connected to the orchestra by a ladder and the avail- ability of an eccyclema, have been accepted. 2) P. Arnott, Greek Scenic Conventions in the Fifth Century (Oxford 1962), 102. 18
selves are in transit between Heracles' door and the orchestra and they simply interrupt the corpse as it passes. The brilliant corpse scene follows; but it is worth considering what its function may have been. Stanford in the latest edition of the Frogs 1) suggests plausibly enough, that it helps the audience to understand that the two are on their way to Hades, though the preceding discussion of the means of reaching the Underworld and the immediately following trip across Acheron should have been sufficient even for the slowest member of the audience. Sec- ondly it can be claimed that as a connecting scene it serves to break down the earlier established scene setting before Heracles' house for it eases the change from one setting to the other, being enacted in a kind of limbo between two exactly located scenes. Perhaps also it was simply that Aristophanes wanted to include the joke on (177), but it seems possible that its main purpose was none of these, but rather that it was designed primarily to hold the attention of the audience long enough for the preparations for Charon's boat to be completed. Dionysus and Xanthias are approaching the orchestra and in the centre of the theatrical area when they address the corpse. The corpse departs, Xanthias agrees to carry the luggage, picks it up, perhaps approaches the donkey and the scene is immediately interrupted by the arrival of the boat. As A. L. M. Cary remarked 2), Charon's 7tap£x?£xÀoufollows so closely on Dionysus' final remark that it completes it metrically, yet the implication that it is speed of production that is indicated here and that this is a vital factor in determining whether the boat appears in the orchestra or on the stage has been overlooked. As regards the orchestra, the obvious problem is the distance involved in reaching a central position in the orchestra from the parodos, or rather from a point in the parodos at which preparations for the boat can be made sufficiently hidden from the majority of the audience to prevent the distraction of attention from the final and most important line of the corpse scene. Further the devices that have been proposed
1) W. B. Stanford, Aristophanes Frogs (London 1963), on line 167. 2) A. L. M. Cary, The Appearance of Charon in the Frogs, C.H. 51 (1937), 52-3.