Line #17 Literature/Batrachomyomachia


1	%% Image source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060705-mouse-frog.html
2	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
3	[[quoteright:320:[[Magazine/NationalGeographic https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mouse-on-a-Frog_9476.jpg]]]]
4	[[caption-width-right:320:[-Photographic evidence of Puff-jaw, just about to coldheartedly leave Crumb-snatcher to his death.-] ]]
5
6	->Ἀρχόμενος πρώτης σελίδος χορὸν ἐξ Ἑλικῶνος\
7	ἐλδεῖν εἰς ἐμὸν ἧτορ ἐπεύχομαι εἵνεκ' ἀοιδῆς,\
8	ἣν νέον ἐν δέλτοισιν ἐμοῖς ἐπὶ γούνασι θῆκα,\
9	δῆριν ἀπειρεσίην, πολεμόκλονον ἔργον Ἄρηος,\
10	εὐχόμενος μερόπεσσιν ἐς οὔατα πᾶσι βαλέσθαι\
11	πῶς μύες ἐν βατράχοισιν ἀριστεύσαντες ἔβησαν
12	-->--''Batrachomyomachia'', Lines 1-6[[labelnote:]]''Archómenos prótos selídos choròn ex Helikônos / eldeîn eis emòn hê̄tor epeúxomai ehínek' aoidê̄s, / ḕn néon en déltoisin emoîs epì goúnasi thê̄ka, / dê̄rin apeiresíēn, polemóklonon érgou Ários, / euchómenos merópessin es oúata pâsi balésthai / pôs mýes en batráchoisin aristeúsantes ébēsa''[[/labelnote]][[labelnote:*]](Beginning, first I pray to the choir to come down from Helicon / into my heart on account of the song of the page, / which I newly placed in writing on my knee, / that immense conflict, that clamorous deed of Ares, / praying to cast in all ears of mortals / how the mice proved their valour on the frogs)[[/labelnote]]
13
14	The ''Batrachomyomachia'' (''Βατραχομυομαχία''[[note]]"Frog-Mouse Battle"[[/note]]) is an ancient Greek epic in the tradition of Creator/{{Homer}}'s ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]'' and ''[[Literature/TheOdyssey Odyssey]]'', which tackles the grave subjects of war and revenge, as the accidental death of a prince leads the two armies into conflict.
15
16	Two armies composed of mice and frogs, respectively.
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18	One of the ancient "Beast Epics"[[note]](There also existed the lost ''Γερανομαχία'' (''Geranomachía''), ''Ἀραχνομαχία'' (''Arachnomachía''), and ''Ψαρομαχία'' (''Psaromachía''): battles of cranes, spiders, and sparrows)[[/note]], the ''Batrachomyomachia'' details a day-long battle between mice and frogs as a mock epic, parodying the genre (and making {{Parody}} OlderThanFeudalism). The approximately three-hundred line poem's authorship is disputed: the Romans attributed it to Creator/{{Homer}}, while Plutarch called it the work of Pigres of Halicarnassus. Some modern scholars remain unconvinced and point instead to a poet in the time of Alexander the Great. The Homer version isn't taken seriously by scholars today because [[AnachronisticClue the poem mentions roosters, and there weren't any in Greece until a couple of centuries later]].
19
20	The mouse prince Crumb-snatcher[[note]](Ψιχάρπαξ ''Psichárpax'')[[/note]] comes to a lake for a drink when he encounters Puff-jaw[[note]](Φυσίγναθος ''Physígnathos'')[[/note]], king of the frogs. They meet cordially, and Puff-jaw offers to bear his guest across the lake to his home. In the middle of the lake, however, a watersnake appears and the panicked Puff-jaw dives for safety, leaving the hapless Crumb-snatcher to [[ForgotICouldntSwim drown]].
21
22	His death is witnessed by the mice and, of course, ThisMeansWar.
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24	And so their day-long battle is described with all the elements of the [[TheEpic epic genre]]: [[LockAndLoadMontage arming scenes]][[note]](bean-pod greaves, skin breastplates, and peanut-shell helmets for the mice; mallow-leaf greaves, beet-leaf breastplates, and snail-shell helmets for the frogs)[[/note]], [[DivineIntervention divine participation]][[note]]Except for much of the battle, the gods prefer to amuse themselves watching than help either side.[[/note]], character epithets, epic [[FinalBattle battle scenes]], etc. A plethora of epic conventions, all used to describe [[MundaneMadeAwesome warring mice and frogs]]. Thus in modern times, the word 'batrachomyomachia' and its various translations has come to mean "a silly conflict".
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26	The mock epic is available online [[http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/graeca/Chronologia/S_ante01/Batrachomyomachia/bat_text.html here]] in the ancient Greek; in English [[http://archive.org/details/homersbatrachomy00chapuoft here]].
27	----
28	!!This parody contains examples of the following tropes:
29	* AnachronisticClue: As noted above, this poem was long considered to be by Creator/{{Homer}} himself. Then someone noticed that the poem says "The cock had crow'd up"... there were no roosters in Greece until a couple centuries after Homer.
30	* {{Bathos}}: You have the whole [[MundaneMadeAwesome epic]] style, complete with the gods watching over the conflict, and it's about mice and frogs.
31	* BearerOfBadNews: Lick-platter (Λειχοπίναξ, ''Leichopínax''), who brings news of Crumb-snatcher's death to the mice.
32	* BlatantLies: Puff-jaw completely denies having anything to do with Crumb-snatcher's death.
33	* BoltOfDivineRetribution: Zeus releases his bolt to try to frighten the mice into retreat and save the frogs from destruction. The mice continue fighting anyway.
34	* TheCavalry: The crabs, which force the mice into retreat at the end of the day.
35	* CivilizedAnimal: It's a mock epic parodying works in the genre like the ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]'', and it does so by replacing the heroic figures with talking mice and frogs. They definitely still behave like animals in some respects, but they wear armor, carry tiny spears, and generally act 'civilized' throughout the 300-line poem.
36	* CurbStompBattle: Slice-snatcher would have routed all the frog warriors if Zeus hadn't intervened.
37	* DivineIntervention: Zeus finally sends in reinforcements (crabs) to aid the frogs and force an end to the battle.
38	* {{Gorn}}: Just as violent as the ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]''... just with mice and frogs.
39	%% IAmXSonOfY
40	%% KingOfTheGods: Zeus.
41	* LockAndLoadMontage: The two arming scenes, conventions of the epic genre.
42	* MouseTrap: One killed one of Crumb-snatcher's brothers.
43	%% MouseWorld
44	* TheMuse: Invoked at the start, as traditional in epics.
45	%% NarrativePoem
46	* NominalImportance: Completely averted, though we don't get much information about these characters ''besides'' their names, fathers' names, and how they die or kill their enemy.
47	* {{Parody}}: One of Homeric epics.
48	* {{Revenge}}: The mice declare war seeking vengeance for Crumb-snatcher's death.
49	* RuleOfPersonificationConservation: An epic focusing on mice and frogs for the purpose of parody.
50	* SacredHospitality: The frog king Puff-jaw offers to receive Crumb-snatcher as a guest before he takes him across the lake and accidentally drowns him.
51	* SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism: Leans far more to the TalkingAnimal side of the scale, though the frogs and mice do wear armour and wield spears.
52	* SnakesAreEvil: A watersnake causes Puff-jaw's panic and, inadvertently, Crumb-snatcher's death.
53	* SuperDrowningSkills: Crumb-snatcher's inability to swim and his abandonment by Puff-jaw sets off the conflict.
54	* TalkingAnimal: They even have kings!
55	* ThisMeansWar: The prince of frogs has failed to save the prince of the mice after they had a pleasant conversation! Surely, the mice must avenge this insult!
56	%% WarGod: Ares and Athena.
57	* WickedWeasel: Crumb-snatcher is introduced having escaped ''galéēs kíndynon'' (γαλέης κίνδυνον, "the danger of the weasel").

Context Literature / Batrachomyomachia