Clouds
Aristophanes' comedy satirising Socrates and the sophistic movement in fifth-century Athens
The Meaning of Clouds
Clouds was first performed at the City Dionysia in 423 BCE. The plot follows Strepsiades, an Athenian farmer drowning in debt because of his horse-obsessed son Pheidippides. Strepsiades enrolls in Socrates' "Thinkery," a school where students learn to make the weaker argument defeat the stronger — a skill he hopes will allow him to argue his way out of his debts in court. The play caricatures Socrates as a charlatan who swings in a basket studying the clouds, denies the traditional gods, and teaches verbal trickery. When Strepsiades proves too dim to learn, he sends Pheidippides, who masters the art of rhetoric so thoroughly that he beats his father and argues he is justified in doing so. Horrified at the moral corruption his scheme has produced, Strepsiades burns down the Thinkery. The play contributed to the popular suspicion of Socrates that culminated in his trial and execution twenty-four years later.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Socrates himself reportedly stood up in the theatre audience during the first performance of Clouds so spectators could compare his face to the actor's mask
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
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