Xanthias appears in the comedy The Frogs by the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes as the slave who accompanies the god Dionysus to Hades in search of a great tragic poet. In the play, which echoes the contemporary debate on Athenian society, Xanthias manifests behaviour and licence of speech more typical of a master than a slave, subverting traditional notions of class; he even calls the king of the gods 'brother Zeus' (line 750). In making the comparison Ruskin renders Turner 's critic a classic light-weight buffoon no less 'jumped up' and insolent. The play is significant for Ruskin since, like 'Modern Painters' it has as its central theme an aesthetic debate on the nature of great art. The ancient work evaluates the tragedies of Euripides and Aeschylus, judging the latter superior, and is further referred to by Ruskin when equating Turner's work directly with Aeschylus' high art. (see MP I:xxii).