The ancient Hypothesis of Aristophanes’ Frogs characterizes Dionysus’ decision to bring Aeschylus back from Hades, and not Euripides, as παρὰ προσδοκίαν. Virtually, the scope of this essay is to examine whether the ending of the literary contest between the two tragic poets was prepared by Aristophanes in such a way that the spectator would consider Dionysus’ choice logical and expected. As such, the Frogs is assessed under the twofold prism of politics and poetics: it is examined whether and to what extend the first is a criterion of quality and evaluation for the second. It is seen that Dionysus, initiated in politics during the course of the play, judges the merit of a poet with a political criterion. As a result, Aeschylus is established as a winner for his νουθεσία of a unified front composed by the supreme and “healthy” Athenian political powers that will govern implementing “the ancient values”.
