{"id":61161,"date":"2020-04-11T10:08:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T08:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/?post_type=ciekawostki&p=61161"},"modified":"2020-04-11T10:08:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T08:08:44","slug":"frogs-in-world-of-ancient-greeks-and-romans","status":"publish","type":"ciekawostki","link":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/curiosities\/frogs-in-world-of-ancient-greeks-and-romans\/","title":{"rendered":"Frogs in world of ancient Greeks and Romans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ancient Greeks and Romans identified frogs with harmony, fertility or debauchery and the goddess Aphrodite (Venus<\/a>). Ancient writers devoted numerous texts to frogs, including “Batrachomyomachia”, which tells about the war of mice with frogs and is heroicomic. The authorship of this work is unknown, but Homer is considered the creator. <\/p>\n

Another antique work in which the frogs appear is the Aesop’s fable – “The Frogs Who Desired a King”. The story tells the story of a frog community that asked Zeus to bring them a king<\/a>. God fulfilled their wish and sent a wooden block, which the frogs recognized as a lifeless figure who would not rule them in a good way. The frogs asked Zeus again for the king, but this time he indicated that he would be cruel and demanding. Then God sent a stork that ate all the frogs.<\/p>\n

Jean de La Fontaine modeled on the ancient fairy tale he wrote his work “The Frogs Asking A King”:<\/p>\n

\n

A certain commonwealth aquatic,
\nGrown tired of order democratic,
\nBy clamouring in the ears of Jove, effected
\nIts being to a monarch’s power subjected.
\nJove flung it down, at first, a king pacific.
\nWho nathless fell with such a splash terrific,
\nThe marshy folks, a foolish race and timid,
\nMade breathless haste to get from him hid.
\nThey dived into the mud beneath the water,
\nOr found among the reeds and rushes quarter.
\nAnd long it was they dared not see
\nThe dreadful face of majesty,
\nSupposing that some monstrous frog
\nHad been sent down to rule the bog.
\nThe king was really a log,
\nWhose gravity inspired with awe
\nThe first that, from his hiding-place
\nForth venturing, astonish’d, saw
\nThe royal blockhead’s face.
\nWith trembling and with fear,
\nAt last he drew quite near.
\nAnother follow’d, and another yet,
\nTill quite a crowd at last were met;
\nWho, growing fast and strangely bolder,
\nPerch’d soon upon the royal shoulder.
\nHis gracious majesty kept still,
\nAnd let his people work their will.
\nClack, clack! what din beset the ears of Jove?
\n‘We want a king,’ the people said, ‘to move!’
\nThe god straight sent them down a crane,
\nWho caught and slew them without measure,
\nAnd gulp’d their carcasses at pleasure;
\nWhereat the frogs more wofully complain.
\n‘What! what!’ great Jupiter<\/a> replied;
\n‘By your desires must I be tied?
\nThink you such government is bad?
\nYou should have kept what first you had;
\nWhich having blindly fail’d to do,
\nIt had been prudent still for you
\nTo let that former king suffice,
\nMore meek and mild, if not so wise.
\nWith this now make yourselves content,
\nLest for your sins a worse be sent.’<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another song about frogs is, among others Aesop’s fairy tale “The Frog and the Ox”, where the frog tries to get the size of the cries.<\/p>\n

It is worth adding that we do not have information that the Romans were eating<\/a> frogs; we will not find any reference to frogs even in the main culinary work of the Romans “De re coquinaria” by Apicius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41898,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"kategorie_ciekawostek":[85],"class_list":["post-61161","ciekawostki","type-ciekawostki","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","kategorie_ciekawostek-food"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/61161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ciekawostki"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/61161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategorie_ciekawostek","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategorie_ciekawostek?post=61161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}