Aeschylus and Euripides attack

 

Why did Aeschylus and Euripides attack each other? What was the result?

 

Ans. In The Frogs Dionysus finds life empty without Euripides. He decides to go to the underworld and bring him back. He obtains a club and lion's skin and sets out for the kingdom of the dead with his slave and a donkey. After a series of fantastic adventures they are arrested and taken before the king. After Euripides died, he laid claim to Aeschylus's place and created an uproar that he forced Hades to hold a contest to decide the issue. Dionysus is an expert in the dramas. He is appointed as judge.

 

Aeschylus and Euripides appear and attack one another in a long debate. Both of them quote from their tragedies to prove their superiority. Aeschylus wins, but Dionysus is still in doubt. He decides to take one who gives the best advice on public policies. He begins to ask question about affairs in Athens. Euripides reminds him that he has come for him but Dionysus makes it clear that he chooses Aeschylus. Aeschylus says that Sophocles should be installed in the chair of honour. The criticism of the two playwrights is centred round the agony and the scenes that follow. It is found that the style of Euripides is prosaic; his prologues monotonous, the innovations in his lyrics are trivial. The whole effect of the drama is found immoral and unpatriotic. The plays of Aeschylus, like those of Euripides, show some stylistic defects. But tragedies of Aeschylus improve the morals of those who see them and they are filled with the loftiest patriotism. So the Dionysus chooses Aeschylus the winner in the debate between those two.