Pavlos Sfyroeras
Aristophanes’ Frogs opens with literal and metaphorical burdens. The distribution of such phrases as βαρέως/χαλεπῶς φέρειν, συμφορὰν φέρειν, etc., in earlier poetry,Thucydides, and Plato points to Pericles’ rhetorical tropes, especially (I would speculate) as employed in his lost Samian epitaphios. The play with these tropes early on sets the stage for this comedy’s nostalgia specifically for the Periclean past.