The Clouds

By Aristophanes

The Clouds can be considered not only the world's first extant 'comedy of ideas' but also a brilliant and successful example of that genre. The play gained notoriety for its caricature of the philosopher Socrates ever since its mention in Plato's Apology as a factor contributing to the old man's trial and execution.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilder Publications, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781515455554

Aristophanes

Often referred to as the father of comedy, Aristophanes was an ancient Greek comedic playwright who was active in ancient Athens during the fourth century BCE, both during and after the Peloponnesian War. His surviving plays collectively represent most of the extant examples of the genre known as Old Comedy and serve as a foundation for future dramatic comedy in Western dramatic literature. Aristophanes’ works are most notable for their political satire, and he often ridiculed public figures, including, most famously, Socrates, in his play The Clouds. Aristophanes is also recognized for his realistic representations of daily life in Athens, and his works provide an important source to understand the social reality of life in Ancient Greece. Aristophanes died sometime after 386 BCE of unknown causes.

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The Clouds

by Aristophanes

© 2022 SMK Books

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, used, or transmitted in any form or manner by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express, prior written permission of the author and/or publisher, except for brief quotations for review purposes only.

Hardcover ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-2899-2

Trade Paperback ISBN 13: 978-1-6172-0562-0

E-book ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-5555-4

Introduction

The satire in this, one of the best known of all Aristophanes’ comedies, is directed against the new schools of philosophy, or perhaps we should rather say dialectic, which had lately been introduced, mostly from abroad, at Athens. The doctrines held up to ridicule are those of the ‘Sophists’—such men as Thrasymachus from Chalcedon in Bithynia, Gorgias from Leontini in Sicily, Protagoras from Abdera in Thrace, and other foreign scholars and rhetoricians who had flocked to Athens as the intellectual centre of the Hellenic world. Strange to say, Socrates of all people, the avowed enemy and merciless critic of these men and their methods, is taken as their representative, and personally attacked with pitiless raillery. Presumably this was merely because he was the most prominent and noteworthy teacher and thinker of the day, while his grotesque personal appearance and startling eccentricities of behaviour gave a ready handle to caricature. Neither the author nor his audience took the trouble, or were likely to take the trouble, to discriminate nicely; there was, of course, a general resemblance between the Socratic ‘elenchos’ and the methods of the new practitioners of dialectic; and this was enough for stage purposes. However unjustly, Socrates is taken as typical of the newfangled sophistical teachers, just as in ‘The Acharnians’ Lamachus, with his Gorgon shield, is introduced as representative of the War party, though that general was not specially responsible for the continuance of hostilities more than anybody else.

Aristophanes’ point of view, as a member of the aristocratical party and a fine old Conservative, is that these Sophists, as the professors of the new education had come to be called, and Socrates as their protagonist, were insincere and dangerous innovators, corrupting morals, persuading young men to despise the old-fashioned, home-grown virtues of the State and teaching a system of false and pernicious tricks of verbal fence whereby anything whatever could be proved, and the worse be made to seem the better—provided always sufficient payment were forthcoming. True, Socrates refused to take money from his pupils, and made it his chief reproach against the lecturing Sophists that they received fees; but what of that? The Comedian cannot pay heed to such fine distinctions, but belabours the whole tribe with indiscriminate raillery and scurrility.

The play was produced at the Great Dionysia in 423 B.C., but proved unsuccessful, Cratinus and Amipsias being awarded first and second prize. This is said to have been due to the intrigues and influence of Alcibiades, who resented the caricature of himself presented in the sporting Phidippides. A second edition of the drama was apparently produced some years later, to which the ‘Parabasis’ of the play as we possess it must belong, as it refers to events subsequent to the date named.

The plot is briefly as follows: Strepsiades, a wealthy country gentleman, has been brought to penury and deeply involved in debt by the extravagance and horsy tastes of his son Phidippides. Having heard of the wonderful new art of argument, the royal road to success in litigation, discovered by the Sophists, he hopes that, if only he can enter the ‘Phrontisterion,’ or Thinking-Shop, of Socrates, he will learn how to turn the tables on his creditors and avoid paying the debts which are dragging him down. He joins the school accordingly, but is found too old and stupid to profit by the lessons. So his son Phidippides is substituted as a more promising pupil. The latter takes to the new learning like a duck to water, and soon shows what progress he has made by beating his father and demonstrating that he is justified by all laws, divine and human, in what he is doing. This opens the old man’s eyes, who sets fire to the ‘Phrontisterion,’ and the play ends in a great conflagration of this home of humbug.

The Clouds

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

STREPSIADES.

PHIDIPPIDES.

SERVANT OF STREPSIADES.

SOCRATES.

DISCIPLES OF SOCRATES.

JUST DISCOURSE.

UNJUST DISCOURSE. PASIAS, a Money-lender.

PASIAS’ WITNESS. AMYNIAS, another Money-lender.

CHAEREPHON.

CHORUS OF CLOUDS.

SCENE: A sleeping-room in Strepsiades’ house; then in front of Socrates’ house.

STREPSIADES. Great gods! will these nights never end? will daylight never come? I heard the cock crow long ago and my slaves are snoring

Reviews for The Clouds

[danielstj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was really decent. It was a play full of high, and low, comedy as well as interesting (historically and fictionally) characters as well as situations that you could appreciate the humour of. I didn't think I would like this very much, but I was proven wrong from almost the beginning. For those who like drama, classics, or Greek literature- you should read this and give it a try.3.75 stars.

[jonfaith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While this edition suffers from a too modern translation The Clouds resonates, all too self aware, castigating the audience, slurring them actually. This great farce takes aim at the secular university and the godless wiseasses it produces.

As Goodreads friend Sologdin noted, it is intriguing to see Socrates cast as a pre-Socratic. Much like Derrida’s post card.

A middle class father is deep in debt as a result of his son's lavish lifestyle. Father hopes education will allow the son to use logic and rhetoric to defeat these legal challenges. Son learns well and eventually canes his father.

The pale effeminate world of the sophists is ridiculed at every turn, though I wasn’t expecting the apocalyptic conclusion.

I recommend this satire at those who can still giggle with Deconstruction.

[gbsallery · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure I get this, but it's an interesting glimpse into Athenian life a very long time ago. The moral appears to be that you should not trust philosophers; there's not much else to it.

[birdbrian-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What do you think of somebody who enters his play into a contest, writes himself into the script as a character (playing himself), and in the middle of the dialogue, gives himself a longwinded nonsequitur of a soliloquey, in which he berates all the other playwrites in the contest, and pleads for the judges to award him first prize? (and it ain't subtle): "And now, Gentlemen of the Jury, a few brief words about the Prize,and the solid benefits you stand to gain by voting for The Clouds-as you certainly should, in any case..."Aristophanes: smartassI know. Awesome, huh? That's just the beginning. Aristophanes doesn't care much for Socrates, so he makes the entire play a series of shots and parodies of him. It's the story of an average Joe (Strepsaides) who enrolls in Socrates' private academy ("The Thinkery" !), and all the absurd and mostly useless lessons he learns there:1) How to measure small distances by dipping a mite's feet in wax, and then counting his footsteps between points.2) A philosophical debate about whether gnats fart through their asses, or maybe through their mouths.3) The revealed secret that the cosmos is actually an oven, and we who think we are people are actually little bits of charcoal, blazing away. 4) The secret oath of the Thinkery:To abstain from alcohol and the company of women; To devote oneself to the Thinkery code...to wrangle,to niggle,to haggle, to battle, -a loyal soldier of the Tongue, conducting [one]self always like a true philosopher!5) How ducks should be called, so as to differentiate between the male and the female. ducks and duchesses Socrates: punk'dSo, there's a lot of fun at Socrates' expense, and it spills over into the surreal in places. In one funny/bizarre section, the embodied forms of PHILOSOPHY and SOPHISTRY get into a fight:Sophistry: "I may be called mere Sophistry, but I'll chop you down to size. I'll refute you!Philosophy: "You? Refute me?!? How?"Sophistry: "With unconventionality. With ultramodernity. With unothodox ideas.Philosophy: "For whose present vogue we are indebted to this audience of imbeciles and asses."...Sophistry: "Why you Decrepitude! You Doddering Dotard!"Philosophy: "Why you Precocious Pederast! You Palpable Pervert!"Sophistry: "Pelt me with roses!"Philosophy: "You Toadstool! O Cesspool!"Sophistry: "Wreath my hair with lilies!"Philosophy: "Why, you Parriside!"Sophistry: "Shower me with gold! Look, don't you see I welcome your abuse?"Philosophy: "Welcome it, Monster? In my day we would have cringed with shame."Sophistry: "Whereas now we're flattered. Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today."Philosophy: "Repulsive whippersnapper!"Sophistry: "Disgusting Fogey!"Philosophy: "Becuase of YOU the schools of Athensstand deserted; one whole generationchaffers in the streets, gaping and idle.Mark my words: someday this cityshall learn what you have made her men:effeminates and fools."Sophistry: "Ugh. You're squalid."Philosophy: "Whereas you've become a Dandy and a Fop!..."(etc)You see why this play is a lot of fun, don't you?Maybe the best shot Aristophanes gets in is when Strepsiades enrolls his son at the Thinkery, and instructs Socrates: "But remember, Socrates: I want him able to make an utter mockery of the Truth." BURRRRRRNNNNNNNNN! What's wrong? Don't you like making fun of Socrates? That's okay; this play has masturbation jokes too. (page 71; "I used to make rhythm with this one.") You gotta have some of them. And dick jokes too. Aristophanes throws a few in, for good measure.Then a few callouts to the locale and audience:Socrates (points to a map): See here? This here is Athens.Strepsiades: That's Athens? Don't be absurd. Why, I don't see a single lawcourt in session.**Athenians being apparently renouned for their love of litigation.The crowd loves it when you tailor it to them. (every band ever to play in Seattle: "Hello Seattle!!!" Crowd: Wooooohooooooo!!!)Later on, Aristophanes takes it all back, and berates the audience (p116):Strepsaides: "Well, numskulls, what are you gawking at?Yes! You down there! You dumb sheep with pigeon faces!Cats' paws of cleverer men!Any sophist's suckers!Oh, shysterbait! Generation of dupes!Poor twerps!O Audience of asses, you were born to be taken!-And now, Gentlemen, a song:A little ditty of my own, dedicated to me and my son,offering us warmest congratulations on our successes.Hahahahah! Something about Aristophanes reminds me of Morrisey. Am I way off base with that? Something about the smart-assedness of it all strikes me as very Morriseyesque.Q: So where does the "Clouds" title come from? A: Socrates doesn't worship Zeus; in fact he denies Zeus exists at all. Instead, The Thinkery is devoted to worshipping the Clouds... goddesses who live in the sky and appear to mortal men as the puffy white shape-shifting forms we call clouds.Strepsaides: But what I want to know is this: why if these ladies are really Clouds, they look like women? For honest Clouds aren't women.Socrates: Then what do they (i.e. clouds) look like?Strepsaides: I don't know for sure. Well, they look like mashed-up fluff, not at all like women. No, by Zeus. Women have... er... noses.If you're in the right mood, this play is a barrel of laughs... or if not quite bust-a-gut, laugh-out-loud humor, at least it will put a smile on your face a dozen times or so. While there are some plays I'd rather see performed than read myself (e.g. Shakespeare's [book:Coriolanus|108171]), I think this was better to read, because- honestly- there are bits which needed explaining, and it was more gratifying to go to the notes in the back of the book and be let in on the jokes than to have them wizzz over my head in a performance. Eventually this thing develops a plot. Strepsiades enrolls his son Pheidippides in the Thinkery, for the purpose of learning clever arguments to get out of paying debts. And Pheidippides does indeed learn this skill, but an unintended consequence of his education is that he learns disrespect of his father and his old ways. Pheidippides whips Strepsaides, and talks nonsense circles around him about all sorts of ridiculous things. My favorite exchange in this part goes like this: Stepsaides: Show a little respect for Zeus.Pheidippides: Zeus? You old fogy, are you so stupid you still believe there's such a thing as Zeus?Stepsaides: Of course there's a Zeus.Pheidippides: Not any more there isn't. Convection-Principle's in power now. Zeus has been deported.Stepsaides: That's a lie! A lot of cheap Convection-Principle propaganda circulated by those windbags at the Thinkery! I was brainwashed! Why they told me the whole universe was a pot-bellied stove...In a heartwarming denouement, father and son join forces and burn Socrates' school to the ground. Now how's that for a feel-good family-friendly ending?

[kaionvin · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Probably only interesting to your hardcore classical Greek/Athens inter/intra-philosophy-school-fighting crowd (who also like bawdy 'jokes'). And the people who study them. Kind of goofy for my tastes.

[jpsnow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Aristophanes won some of the drama competitions under a pseudonym before he was old enough to enter. He references both Aeschylus (as a conservatives choice) and Euripides (as liked by the new "wrong logic" generation of youth). In addition, he continues his debate/feud with Cleon. More than anything, this work represents the same criticisms put against Socrates during his trial -- that he was leading the youth of the time away from discipline and tradition. The victory of Wrong Logic in his debate with Right logic demonstrates the twisted argument that men found so hard to refute. The sexual innuendo is also thick throughout the interaction with Socrates and his students. I often wonder how much the content has been altered from the original when the rhyme is this good. It was fun to read, aloud even, and would make a great speech excerpt. The thought process by Strepsiades is hilarious in places, and the words of the Clouds (chorus) are quite powerful.

[clytemnestra215_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Strepsiades was a terrible character, and I adored him. The way that he stomped on everything insightful or serious with a fart joke should have pissed me off, but instead it had me laughing out loud. My favorite part is near the beginning, where the chorus comes on for the first time. This must have been hilarious seen on the stage. Socrates is revering the chorus and going, "O great Clouds!" and so forth, and Strepsiades says, with the same religious fervor, that he's so amazed and enraptured by him that if it's allowed, and even if it's not, he's so awed that he must take a crap. I am not at all a fan of crude humor like that on a general basis, but for whatever reason, I find myself unfailingly amused.The whole thing was a mixture of the terribly wonderful. It was interesting to see Socrates being approached as a regular guy with a bit of an ego problem. In my encounters of learning about Socrates, he'd always held some heavy connotations of serious thought, though he did have his light-hearted moments. It's both ridiculous and hilarious to see Socrates, such a revered scholar, being made fun of. Whenever I read Plato, I now have this impression in the back of my mind of some guy swinging down on a wire and talking in a haughty voice about ducks. I'd say the play did its job.

[harleth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This translation retains much of the raunchy Greek comedy. As such, this is not a book for the prudish or faint of heart. For any classics scholar, dramatist or theater fan this is a must read classic.