The Batrachomyomachia (Ancient Greek: Βατραχομυομαχία, from βάτραχος, "frog", μῦς, "mouse", and μάχη, "battle") or Battle of the Frogs and Mice is a comic epic, or a parody of the Iliad. Although its date and authorship are uncertain, it belongs to the classical period, as it was known to Plutarch. Its composition date was traditionally placed in the 5th century BC, but linguistic studies suggested the poem's origin in Ionia during the 3rd or 2nd century BC. A minority view considers it to be a Roman era-poem and attributes it to Lucian (2nd century AD). A manuscript from the High Middle Ages attributes the poem to Timarchus of Caria, who is otherwise unknown. He has been identified with either the tyrant Timarchus of Miletus (killed in 258 BC while serving in the Syrian Wars) or the usurper king Timarchus (killed in 160 BC while serving in the early phases of the Seleucid Dynastic Wars). Both men were thought to have originated in Miletus. The word batrachomyomachia has come to mean "a trivial altercation". Both the Greek word and its German translation, Froschmäusekrieg, have been used to describe disputes such as the one between the ideologues and pragmatists in the Reagan administration. In the epic, a fleeing mouse-prince meets a frog-king and is offered a free visit to his new acquaintance's kingdom. When the frog dives underwater to avoid a snake, the prince drowns. The other mice declare war to avenge their fallen prince. The goddess Athena refuses to help either faction in the war, because they have both acted against her in the past. The mice prevail in the initial battle, but Zeus refuses to allow the complete destruction of the frogs. He sends an army of crabs against the mice, forcing them to retreat. The war lasts for a single day and ends at sunset. Source: Wikipedia (en)