The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
Batrachomyomachia
Batpaxomyomaxia
English Translations
Batrachomyomachia;
or, The Battaile of Frogs and Mife
by George Chapman (1624)
(biography)
Homer's Battle
of the Frogs and Mice
Thomas Parnell (1716) (biography)
THE
BATTLE OF FROGS AND MICE
Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914)
THE BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND
MICE
From "The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles"
by Padraic Colum (1921) (biography)
The
Battle of the Frogs and the Mice,
an Homeric Fable
by George W. Martin (1962)
Illustrated by Fred Gwynne
The Battle of the Frogs
and the Mice
by David Hine (1972) .
Notes
Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (trans.), Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic
Cycle, Homerica; 1914
“Here is told the story of the quarrel
which arose between the two tribes, and how they fought, until Zeus sent crabs
to break up the battle. It is a parody of the warlike epic, but has little
in it that is really comic or of literary merit, except perhaps the list of
quaint arms assumed by the warriors. The text of the poem is in a chaotic
condition, and there are many interpolations, some of Byzantine date.
"Though popularly ascribed to Homer, its real author is said by Suidas
(Suda) to have been Pigres, a Carian, brother of Artemisia, “wife of
Mausonis,” who distinguished herself at the battle of Salamis. Suidas
is confusing the two Artemisias, but he may be right in attributing the poem
to about 480 BC.”
Hine, Daryl (trans.), Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns; 2005
"Its appeal for the reader should consist
in the literary absurdity and microcosmic rough-and-tumble fun of the action,
which suggests some Hellenistic Mickey Mouse cartoon." (p. 93)
Brewer, E. Cobham, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable; 1898
Ba’trachomy’omachia (pronounced
Ba-trak’o-my’o-mak’ia) means “a storm in a puddle”
or “much ado about nothing.” The word is the name of a mock-heroic
poem in Greek, supposed to be by Pi’grs of Caria, and means “The
Battle of the Frogs and Mice.”
Temple, Olivia and Robert (trans.), Aesop The Complete Fables; 1998
“The mock-epic is very funny, though
some with little sense of humor have not seen that. Certainly there are connections
between the mock-epic and the fable. (The Aesop fable “The
Mouse and the Frog.”) B. E. Perry thinks that Demetrius of Phalerum
made a fable from the mock-epic, but the apparent parody by the mock-epic
of an Aesopic death-speech indicates that the mock-epic was actually making
fun of a pre-existing fable, which thus may be an actual work of Aesop, considering
the antiquity of the parody by Pigres.”
Friday, April 7, 2006
Word of the day: Froschmausekrieg
George Dyson explains:
My favorite (descriptive if not lengthy) German word is Froschmausekrieg.
It means "war between the frogs and the mice" and the file in this
photo was so named by Helen Dukas (Einstein's secretary and literary executor)
to describe the long and bitter dispute between the School of Math and the
School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study. A good word
to know when facing such a dispute.
Reader comment: Michael Shaughnessy of Washington
and Jefferson College says,
The German word should be Froschmäusekrieg with an umlaut over the 'a'
(alt 132) It is actually a poem attributed to Homer (Batrachomyomachia) and
is a good satire about the pointlessness of war or feuding.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roguecity/182771423/
Here's a photo inspired by the classic work, recently posted at the url above.
