The Clouds
Content
The Clouds
This article is about the play by Aristophanes. For other
uses, see Cloud (disambiguation).
“Thinkery” redirects here. For the Austin organization,
see The Thinkery.
taining the distance jumped by a flea (a flea’s foot, created
from a minuscule imprint in wax), the exact cause of the
buzzing noise made by a gnat (its rear end resembles a
trumpet) and a new use for a large pair of compasses (as
a kind of fishing-hook for stealing cloaks from pegs over
the gymnasium wall). Impressed, Strepsiades begs to be
introduced to the man behind these discoveries. The wish
is soon granted: Socrates appears overhead, wafted in a
basket at the end of a rope, the better to observe the Sun
and other meteorological phenomena. The philosopher
descends and quickly begins the induction ceremony for
the new elderly student, the highlight of which is a parade
of the Clouds, the patron goddesses of thinkers and other
layabouts. The Clouds arrive singing majestically of the
regions whence they arose and of the land they have now
come to visit, loveliest in all being Greece. Introduced to
them as a new devotee, Strepsiades begs them to make
him the best orator in Greece by a hundred miles. They
reply with the promise of a brilliant future. Socrates leads
him into the dingy Thinkery for his first lesson and The
Clouds step forward to address the audience.
The Clouds (Ancient Greek: Νεφέλαι Nephelai)
is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright
Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical
Athens. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia
in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming last of
the three plays competing at the festival that year. It
was revised between 420-417 BC and thereafter it was
circulated in manuscript form.[3] No copy of the original production survives, and scholarly analysis indicates
that the revised version is an incomplete form of Old
Comedy. This incompleteness, however, is not obvious
in translations and modern performances.[4] The Clouds
can be considered not only the world’s first extant 'comedy of ideas’[5] but also a brilliant and successful example of that genre.[6] The play gained notoriety for its
caricature of Socrates ever since its mention in Plato's
Apology as a factor contributing to the philosopher’s trial Putting aside their cloud-like costumes, The Chorus declares that this is the author’s cleverest play and that it cost
and execution.[7][8]
him the greatest effort. It reproaches the audience for the
play’s failure at the festival, where it was beaten by the
works of inferior authors, and it praises the author for
1 Plot
originality and for his courage in lampooning influential
politicians such as Cleon. The Chorus then resumes its
The play begins with Strepsiades suddenly sitting up in appearance as clouds, promising divine favours if the aubed while his son, Pheidippides, remains blissfully asleep dience punishes Cleon for corruption and rebuking Athein the bed next to him. Strepsiades complains to the au- nians for messing about with the calendar, since this has
dience that he is too worried about household debts to get put Athens out of step with the moon.
any sleep – his wife (the pampered product of an aristocratic clan) has encouraged their son’s expensive interest Socrates returns to the stage in a huff, protesting against
in horses. Strepsiades, having thought up a plan to get out the ineptitude of his new elderly student. He summons
of debt, wakes the youth gently and pleads with him to do Strepsiades outside and attempts further lessons, includsomething for him. Pheidippides at first agrees to do as ing a form of meditative incubation in which the old man
he’s asked then changes his mind when he learns that his lies under a blanket while thoughts are supposed to arise
father wants to enroll him in The Thinkery, a school for in his mind naturally. The incubation results in Strepsiwastrels and bums that no self-respecting, athletic young ades masturbating under the blanket and finally Socrates
man dares to be associated with. Strepsiades explains that refuses to have anything more to do with him. The Clouds
students of The Thinkery learn how to turn inferior argu- advise him to find someone younger to do the learning
ments into winning arguments and this is the only way he for him. His son, Pheidippides, subsequently yields to
can beat their aggrieved creditors in court. Pheidippides threats by Strepsiades and reluctantly returns with him to
however will not be persuaded and Strepsiades decides to the Thinkery, where they encounter the personified arguenroll himself in The Thinkery in spite of his advanced ments Superior and Inferior, associates of Socrates. Superior Argument and Inferior Argument debate with each
age.
other over which of them can offer the best education.
There he meets a student who tells him about some of Superior Argument sides with Justice and the gods, ofthe recent discoveries made by Socrates, the head of The fering to prepare Pheidippides for an earnest life of disThinkery, including a new unit of measurement for ascer1
2
2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
cipline, typical of men who respect the old ways; Inferior
Argument, denying the existence of Justice, offers to prepare him for a life of ease and pleasure, typical of men
who know how to talk their way out of trouble. At the end
of the debate, a quick survey of the audience reveals that
buggers - people schooled by Inferior Arguments - have
got into the most powerful positions in Athens. Superior Argument accepts his inevitable defeat, Inferior Argument leads Pheidippides into the Thinkery for a lifechanging education and Strepsiades goes home happy.
The Clouds step forward to address the audience a second
time, demanding to be awarded first place in the festival
competition, in return for which they promise good rains
- otherwise they'll destroy crops, smash roofs and spoil
weddings.
The story resumes with Strepsiades returning to The
Thinkery to fetch his son. A new Pheidippides emerges,
startlingly transformed into the pale nerd and intellectual
bum that he had once feared to become. Rejoicing in
the prospect of talking their way out of financial trouble,
Strepsiades leads the youth home for celebrations, just
moments before the first of their aggrieved creditors arrives with a witness to summon him to court. Strepsiades
comes back on stage, confronts the creditor and dismisses
him contemptuously. A second creditor arrives and receives the same treatment before Strepsiades returns indoors to continue the celebrations. The Clouds sing ominously of a looming debacle and Strepsiades again comes
back on stage, now in distress, complaining of a beating
that his new son has just given him in a dispute over the
celebrations. Pheidippides emerges coolly and insolently
debates with his father a father’s right to beat his son and
a son’s right to beat his father. He ends by threatening to
beat his mother also, whereupon Strepsiades flies into a
rage against The Thinkery, blaming Socrates for his latest troubles. He leads his slaves, armed with torches and
mattocks, in a frenzied attack on the disreputable school.
The alarmed students are pursued offstage and the Chorus, with nothing to celebrate, quietly departs.
2
Historical background
The Clouds represents a departure from the main themes
of Aristophanes’ early plays - Athenian politics, the
Peloponnesian War and the need for peace with Sparta.
The Spartans had recently stopped their annual invasions
of Attica after the Athenians had taken Spartan hostages
in the Battle of Sphacteria in 425 and this, coupled with a
defeat suffered by the Athenians at the Battle of Delium
in 424, had provided the right conditions for a truce. Thus
the original production of The Clouds in 423 BC came at
a time when Athens was looking forward to a period of
peace. Cleon, the populist leader of the pro-war faction
in Athens, was a target in all Aristophanes’ early plays and
his attempts to prosecute Aristophanes for slander in 426
had merely added fuel to the fire. Aristophanes however
had singled Cleon out for special treatment in his previous play The Knights in 424 and there are relatively few
references to him in The Clouds.
Freed from political and war-time issues, Aristophanes
focuses in The Clouds on a broader issue that underlies
many conflicts depicted in his plays - the issue of Old
versus New, or the battle of ideas.[9] The scientific speculations of Ionian thinkers such as Thales in the sixth century were becoming commonplace knowledge in Aristophanes’ time and this had led, for instance, to a growing belief that civilized society was not a gift from the
gods but rather had developed gradually from primitive
man’s animal-like existence.[10] Around the time that The
Clouds was produced, Democritus at Abdera was developing an atomistic theory of the cosmos and Hippocrates
at Cos was establishing an empirical and science-like approach to medicine. Anaxagoras, whose works were studied by Socrates, was living in Athens when Aristophanes
was a youth. Anaxagoras enjoyed the patronage of influential figures such as Pericles, but oligarchic elements
also had political advocates and Anaxagoras was charged
with impiety and expelled from Athens around 437 BC.
The battle of ideas had led to some unlikely friendships that cut across personal and class differences,
such as between the socially alert Pericles and the unworldly Anaxagoras, and between the handsome aristocrat, Alcibiades, and the ugly plebeian, Socrates. Socrates
moreover had distinguished himself from the crowd by
his heroism in the retreat from the battle of Delium
and this might have further singled him out for ridicule
among his comrades.[11] He was forty-five years old and
in good physical shape when The Clouds was produced[12]
yet he had a face that lent itself easily to caricature by
mask-makers and possibly that was a contributing reason for the frequent characterization of him by comic
poets.[13] In fact one of the plays that defeated The Clouds
in 423 was called Connus, written by Ameipsias, and
it too lampooned Socrates.[14] There is a famous story,
as reported for example by Aelian, according to which
Socrates cheerfully rose from his seat during the performance of The Clouds and stood in silent answer to the
whispers among foreigners in the festival audience: “Who
is Socrates?"[15]
2.1 Places and people in The Clouds
At one point in The Clouds, the Chorus declares that the
author chose Athens for the first performance of the play,
implying that he could have produced it somewhere else
(line 523). In fact, the Chorus is joking. Tragic poets
sometimes produced their plays in other cities (Euripides'
play Andromache for example was possibly performed
in Argos just before The Clouds appeared at the City
Dionysia)[16] yet comic poets in Aristophanes’ time wrote
specifically for local audiences and their plays were studded with topical jokes that only a local audience could
understand. The following places and personalities are
2.1
Places and people in The Clouds
mentioned in The Clouds and they are explained and listed
in various editions of the play.[17][18][19]
Places
• Cicynna (or Kikynna): A deme belonging to the
tribe Acamantis. It is Strepsiades’ deme (line 134)
and he looks for it incredulously on a map in The
Thoughtery (210).
• Sphettus: Another deme belonging to the Acamantis
tribe. It is said to be the deme of Chaerephon (line
156) and it is mentioned also in Wealth II [20]
• Pylos: A locale associated with the Battle of Sphacteria, in which Athenians captured many Spartan hoplites. The students of The Thoughtery resemble the
Spartan captives (line 186). Pylos is frequently mentioned in other plays.[21]
• Attica: The country around Athens. It appears on a
map in The Thoughtery (line 209) and it is home to
the Attic look - the arch look of a trouble-maker who
pretends to be the victim (1176). Attica is rarely
mentioned by name in the surviving plays.[22]
3
• Cynthia or Mount Cynthus: A rocky height on Delos
associated with the cult of Apollo. It is mentioned
by the Clouds in an invocation to Apollo (line 596).
• Ephesus: The site of a cult of Artemis (Diana of the
Ephesians) whose devotees included Lydians. Ephesus and the Lydians are mentioned by the Clouds
in an invocation to Artemis (line 598).
• Parnassus: A mountain associated with the cult of
Dionysus (as practised by the Maenads) overlooking Delphi, one of the most sacred sites in ancient
Greece. It is mentioned by the Clouds in an invocation to Dionysus (line 603). The mountain is mentioned also in The Frogs[27] and there are references
to the town and people of Delphi in The Wasps and
The Birds.[28]
• Thessaly: A region whose women were popularly
associated with witchcraft. Strepsiades thinks of
buying a Thessalian slave who could postpone the
monthly settlement of accounts by bewitching the
moon for him (line 749). Thessaly is mentioned in
three other plays.[29]
• Euboia: A long island adjacent to Attica. It had revolted from Athenian control in 446 BC and it had
been 'laid out' (flattened as in a map) by an Athenian army that included Strepsiades (line 211). The
island is mentioned also in The Wasps.[23]
• Marathon: The site of Athens’ historic victory
against the Persians. The generation of Athenians
responsible for that victory were men educated in
the Superior way (line 986). There are patriotic
mentions of Marathon in several plays.[30]
• Byzantium: A Greek colony that used iron
coinage. It is mentioned only because of a pun on
'nomisma'/'nomos’ - currency/custom (line 249). It
is mentioned again in The Wasps.[24]
• Academy: The site of a public park and gymnasium just outside Athens (later famous as the site of
Plato’s school). A student trained in the Superior
way would exercise there among the sacred olives
(line 1005).
• Nile, Maiotis, Mimas: A river, marsh and mountain respectively. They are mentioned by Socrates
as the kind of places from which the Clouds might
set out for Athens (lines 272-3). The Nile is mentioned again in Thesmophoriazusae.[25]
• Parnes: A mountain north of Athens. Socrates instructs Strepsiades to look towards the mountain for
the arriving clouds (line 323) but in fact the mountain cannot be seen from the Theatre of Dionysus.
• Thurioi: A colony founded by Athens between
446-443 BC. Its foundation had inspired numerous
oracle-mongers and these are included among the
clients of the Clouds (line 332).
• Sounion: A promontory associated with the cult of
Poseidon. It is sometimes struck by thunderbolts
and this is proof that the cosmos are governed by
material causes (line 401). Sounion is mentioned in
two other plays.[26]
• The cave of Trophonius: The site of a terrifying
Boeotian cult to the hero Trophonius. Strepsiades
dreads entering The Thoughtery just as if it were this
cave (line 508)
• Baths of Heracles: Natural springs of warm water
were named after Heracles, who had received them
as a gift from Hephaestus. They are mentioned by
Inferior as proof that men who indulge in such luxuries are manly (line 1051).
• Egypt: A land notoriously subject to unseasonable annual flooding by the Nile. According to the
Clouds, any judge who fails to award victory to this
play might wish to have been born in Egypt after
they've finished with him (line 1130). Egypt is a curiosity referred to in several plays.[31]
Foreigners and foreign influences
• Persians: A dominant force in Asia, they were popularly associated with despotism and with luxurious indolence. Thus women’s shoes in Athens were
known as 'Persian', contrary to men’s shoes, which
were known as Laconian. Socrates makes some Persian shoes for a flea in an effort to measure the length
of a flea’s foot (line 151). There are references to
Persians and their influence in other plays.[32]
4
2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• Thales: A 6th-century Ionian philosopher from
Miletus. He is a mere nobody compared to Socrates
(line 180). His name appears also in The Birds.[33]
• Prodicus: A contemporary sophist and natural
philosopher from Ceos but resident in Athens. The
Clouds respect him for his wisdom (line 361). He is
mentioned also in The Birds.[34]
• Herodotus:
A contemporary historian from
Halicarnassus famous for his exotic accounts of
various nations and their customs, which many
Athenians found hilarious. A word used to denote
a very old-fashioned individual (bekkeselene!, line
398) might have been an allusion by Aristophanes
to Herodotus’ account of an experiment by the
Egyptian Pharaoh to determine humanity’s original
language, which Pharaoh concluded to be Phrygian
on the grounds that the Phrygian word for bread
(bekkos) was the first word spoken by some infants
who had never been taught to speak.[35] There
are also comic allusions to Herodotus in The
Acharnians.
• Corinthians: Allies of the Spartans and ancient rivals of the Athenians in trade. A half pun identifies them with bugs (coreis) when Strepsiades complains that he has been bitten by Corinthians (line
710). There are many references in the other plays
to Corinth and its citizens.[36]
• Diagoras: An free-thinker from Melos and a resident of Athens, popularly believed to be an atheist.
The Melian is used as an epithet for Socrates (line
830) apparently on the grounds that he is an atheist
like Diagoras. Diagoras is mentioned in two other
plays.[37]
Religious, historic and mythical identities
• Coisura: A mostly legendary figure and a byword
for luxury. Strepsiades regards her as a symbol of
his own wife (lines 48, 800). Coisura is mentioned
earlier in The Acharnians.[38]
• Colias: An epithet of Aphrodite, who had a sanctuary of that name at Anaphlystus, on the coast near
Sounion. Strepsiades compares his wife to Colias
and to the Genetullidae, women’s goddesses who
shared the Anaphlystus sanctuary (line 52). Colias
and the Genetullidae are mentioned also in Lysistrata[39] and the latter once more in Thesmophoriazusae.[40]
• Athamas: A legendary king of Boeotia and the subject of two plays by Sophocles, in one of which
he is depicted as a sacrificial victim at the altar of
Zeus. Strepsiades fears that his induction into The
Thoughtery will turn him into another Athamas (line
257).
• Cecrops: A legendary king of Athens. He is mentioned by the Clouds as they arrive in Athens (line
301) and there are references to him in the other
plays.[41]
• Typhoeus: A hundred-headed giant. Strepsiades
mentions him when describing clouds in exaggerated terms loosely borrowed from dithyrambic poets (line 336). There is another mention in The
Knights.[42]
• Eleusinian Mysteries: An Athenian cult of Demeter
with secret rites promising eternal life to initiates.
The Clouds refer to the mysteries without naming
them (lines 302-4).
• Panathenaia: A yearly festival celebrating Athena’s
birth. Strepsiades compares the noise of thunder to
the sound made in his stomach by festival soup (line
386) and Superior objects to feeble performances of
the Pyrrhic dance that he has witnessed at the festival
lately (988). The Panathenaia is mentioned by name
in two other plays.[43]
• Kronia: A humble festival leading up to the Panathenaia. Socrates accuses Strepsiades of smelling of
this festival i.e. being old-fashioned (line 398).
• Diasia: A winter festival. Strepsiades was barbecuing meat for relatives at this festival when a bladder exploded like lightning (line 408) and he once
bought a toy cart for Pheidippides during the festivities (864).
• Electra: A mythical figure spurned by her own
mother. This play resembles her i.e. it was spurned
by the original audience (line 534).
• Memnon and Sarpedon: Mythical heroes. Their
deaths are mourned by the gods on days that are
marked for festivals by the revised Athenian calendar (line 622). Memnon is mentioned again in The
Frogs.[44]
• Telephus: A legendary Mysian king and the subject
of a controversial play by Euripides in which he appeared as a beggar. Superior compares Inferior to a
beggar-like Telephus (line 922). Aristophanes lampoons the Euripidean play in The Acharnians and
Thesmophoriazusae. Telephus is mentioned also in
The Frogs.[45]
• Dipolieia: A sober festival in honour of Zeus Polieus
featuring a sacrificial rite called Bouphonia. Inferior accuses Superior of resembling this festival and
of being full of Bouphonia i.e. he is old fashioned
(lines 984-5). The Dipolieia is mentioned also in
Peace.[46]
• Tritogeneia: An epithet for Athena. Superior considers a poor performance of the pyrrhic dance to
be an insult to Tritogeneia (line 989). The epithet is
used also in Knights and Lysistrata.[47]
2.1
Places and people in The Clouds
5
• Iapetus: A Titan and brother of Cronos. Young men
sometimes use his name as an epithet for their fathers i.e. their fathers are old-fashioned (line 998).
• Simon: He was well known to his contemporaries as
a thief of public money and a perjuror (lines 351,
399), otherwise obscure.
• Peleus: A mythical hero who was banished to the
wilderness after being falsely accused of adultery
and who was given a knife by Hephaestus as protection from wild beasts. Superior cites the gift of
the knife as an example of the rewards that come
with virtue (lines 1063). Superior also mentions
his subsequent marriage to Thetis as another reward
for virtue (1067). Peleus is mentioned again in The
Frogs.[48]
• Cleonymus: A conspicuous figure in Athens, he had
recently lost his shield in the retreat from Delium.
The Clouds imitate him when they seem to resemble
timid deer (line 353), he is a perjuror (400) and his
name should be declined like a feminine noun (67380). He is frequently the target of jokes.[54]
• Solon: A lawgiver often credited with establishing
Athenian democracy. The educated Pheidippides
demonstrates how Solon’s intentions can be interpreted so as to subvert his laws (line 1187). Solon is
also named in The Birds.[49]
• Protenthai: Officials responsible for preparing food
for the Apaturia festivals. They are suspected of
sampling the food (line 1198).
Athenians
• Megacles: An illustrious name denoting various
aristocrats in Athenian history. Strepsiades’ aristocratic wife can number more than one Megacles in
her family tree (lines 46, 70, 124, 815).
• Cleisthenes: A notoriously effete man. The Clouds
imitate him when they seem to resemble women
(line 355). He appears as a character in The Acharnians and Thesmophoriazusae and he is also mentioned in other plays.[55]
• Theorus: An associate of Cleon. He is another man
who should be struck by thunderbolts for perjury
(line 400). He is named in another three plays.[56]
• Cleon: The populist leader of the pro-war faction.
He was at the height of his power when Aristophanes
attacked him in his plays (line 549), meteorological
omens had warned Athens not to trust him and the
gods will favour Athens once more after he is punished for corruption (581-91). He was the antagonist in The Knights, where he was represented as
a Paphlagonian slave, and he is often mentioned in
other early plays.[57]
• Chaerephon: A loyal friend and disciple of Socrates,
well known for his pallor. He is mentioned by name
several times within the play (lines 144, 156, 503,
831, 1465) and some editors include him as a character at the end of the play - a speaking role otherwise denoted in the dramatis personae as 'student'. He is referred to also in The Wasps and The
Birds.[50]
• Hyperbolus: A colleague of Cleon and eventually
his successor as populist leader of Athens. He and
his mother are an easy target for inferior dramatists
(lines 551-58), the wind blew off his chaplet when he
represented Athens at the Amphictyonic League, he
paid a fortune to learn how to speak properly (876)
and he made much more than that through wickedness (1065). He is ridiculed in other plays also.[58]
• Leogoras: A wealthy aristocrat, father of the orator Andocides and related by marriage to Pericles. He bred pheasants (or horses) that Pheidippides wouldn't trade his self-respect for (line 109).
He is named also in The Wasps.[51]
• Sostrate: A common female name used here only
to demonstrate the comic potential of a rational approach to grammar (line 678). The name occurs in
other plays.[59]
• Pericles: The dominant politician in pre-war Athens
who once famously bribed a Spartan general to avoid
battle and subsequently accounted for the bribe as
“lost according to need”. Strepsiades recalls how
Pericles flattened Boeotia (line 213) and he accounts
for the theft of his shoes at The Thoughtery in Periclean terms as “lost according to need” (859). Pericles is mentioned in three other plays.[52]
• Hieronymus, son of Xenophantus: A notoriously
hairy guy. The Clouds imitate him when they seem
to resemble centaurs (line 349). His long hair made
him appear invisible in an earlier play The Acharnians.[53]
• Philoxenus, Amynias, Melesias: Athenians whose
manhood was open to question. Traditional grammar does not always identify the gender of such
names and this might be appropriate in their case
(line 686). Philoxenus was notoriously effete and
he is mentioned again in Wasps.[60] Amynias became a general in the year that The Clouds was
performed and comic poets at about this time lampooned him for his effeminacy, pretensions and financial problems.[61] He too is mentioned again in
The Wasps.[62]
• Pandeletus: Unknown individual, possibly a politician and a sycophant. According to Superior, Inferior feeds on scraps belonging to Pandeletus.
6
3
• Hippocrates: Probably the general reported by
Thucydides to have died in the Battle of Delium,[63]
his sons are mocked in comedy as simpletons. According to Inferior, any student of Superior ends up
resembling the sons of Hippocrates (line 1001).
• Antimachus: A man of this name had been Aristophanes’ choregus in 427-6 BC and he was mocked
in The Acharnians for a lack of generosity.[64] According to Superior, students of Inferior turn out to
be buggers like Antimachus (line 1022).
Poets
• Eupolis: A major comic poet and a rival of Aristophanes. The Chorus accuses him of stealing material for his play Maricas from Aristophanes’ The
Knights and from Phrynichus’ Andromeda (lines
553-6). Phrynichus, the comic poet, is mentioned
again in The Frogs.[65] Eupolis in fact produced Maricas in 421 BC, two years after The Clouds was produced (see The Clouds and Old Comedy).
DISCUSSION
• Carcinus: A naval commander in 431 BC and a
tragic poet. One of his sons, Xenocles, was also
a tragic poet, good enough to defeat Euripides at
the City Dionysia in 415.[70] Strepsiades imagines he
can hear a lament from one of Carcinus’ daemons
(line 1261) though it is unclear if this refers to a
character from one of Carcinus’ plays or if it refers
to Xenocles in tragic mode. Lines from one of their
plays are subsequently parodied in the lament of the
second creditor (lines 1264-5). Carcinus’ sons appeared as dancers in The Wasps and their dancing
skills were subsequently mocked in Peace.
• Simonides: A renowned poet. Strepsiades asked
Pheidippides to recite verses from his poem The
Ram (line 1356) but Pheidipiides dislikes his poetry
(1362). Simonides is mentioned also in Peace and
The Birds.[71]
• Aeschylus: A renowned tragic poet. Strepsiades
likes his poetry but Pheidippides thinks it is full of
smoke (line 1366). Aeschylus is a character in The
Frogs and he is mentioned in other plays.[72]
• Hermippus: Another comic poet, victorious at the
City Dionysia in 436. His play The Breadsellers is 3 Discussion
typical of the works of inferior poets who attack easy
targets (line 557).
Plato appears to have considered The Clouds a contributing factor in Socrates’ trial and execution in 399 BC.
• Stesichorus: A renowned poet from Sicily. He is
There is some support for his opinion even in the modnot mentioned in this play but he is possibly the auern age.[73] Aristophanes’ plays however were generally
thor of a quoted description of Athena as a sacker
unsuccessful in shaping public attitudes on important
of cities (line 967). He is later quoted in Peace.[66]
questions, as evidenced by their ineffectual opposition
• Phrynis: A Mytilenean citharode who won a prize to the Peloponnesian War, demonstrated in the play Lyat the Panathenaea in 456 BC. He is condemned by sistrata, and to populists such as Cleon. Moreover, the
trial of Socrates followed Athens’ traumatic defeat by
Superior as a corruptor of music (line 971).
Sparta, many years after the performance of the play,
• Ceceides: A dithyrambic poet. According to Infe- when suspicions about the philosopher were fuelled by
rior, he is typical of Superior’s old-fashioned tastes public animosity towards his disgraced associates (such
as Alcibiades).[74]
(line 985).
• Homer: The great bard. He denoted the wise counsellor, Nestor, as agoretes (Iliad i.248 and iv.293).
According to Inferior, this is proof that it is alright
to loiter in the agora (line 1056) though in fact it
merely demonstrates a change in the word’s significance. Homer is named in three other plays.[67]
Socrates is presented in The Clouds as a petty thief, a
fraud and a sophist with a specious interest in physical speculations. However, it is still possible to recognize in him the distinctive individual defined in Plato’s
dialogues.[75] The practice of ascetism (as for example
idealized by the Chorus in lines 412-19), disciplined, introverted thinking (as described by the Chorus in lines
700-6) and conversational dialectic (as described by
Socrates in lines 489-90) appear to be caricatures of Socratic behaviours later described more sympathetically
by Plato. The Aristophanic Socrates is much more interested in physical speculations than is Plato’s Socrates
yet it is possible that the real Socrates did take a strong
interest in such speculations during his development as
a philosopher[76] and there is some support for this in
Plato’s dialogue Phaedo 96A.
• Euripides: A renowned tragic poet and a controversial figure in his own time. Laments from one of his
plays [68] are parodied by Strepsiades (lines 718-9
and 1165-6). Pheidippides considers him the cleverest of poets (1377), he particularly enjoys his depiction of incest in Aiolus and he quotes from Alcestis[69] in defense of his right to beat his father (1415).
Euripides is frequently the butt of jokes in Aristophanes’ plays and he appears as a ludicrous character in The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazusae and The It has been argued that Aristophanes caricatured a 'preSocratic' Socrates and that the philosopher depicted by
Frogs.
7
Plato was a more mature thinker who had been influenced by such criticism.[75] Conversely, it is possible that
Aristophanes’ caricature of the philosopher merely reflects his own ignorance of philosophy.[77] According to
yet another view, The Clouds can best be understood in
relation to Plato’s works, as evidence of a historic rivalry
between poetic and philosophical modes of thought.[78]
4
The Clouds and Old Comedy
During the parabasis proper (518-62), the Chorus reveals
that the original play was badly received when it was produced. References in the same parabasis to a play by Eupolis called Maricas (produced in 421) and criticism of
the populist politician Hyperbolus (ostracized in 416) indicate that the second version of The Clouds was probably
composed somewhere between 421-16 BC. The parabasis also includes an appeal to the audience to prosecute
Cleon for corruption. Since Cleon died in 422 it can be
assumed that this appeal was retained from the original
production in 423 and thus the extant play must be a partial revision of the original play.[79]
The revised play is an incomplete form of Old Comedy.
Old Comedy conventionally limits the number of actors
to three or four yet there are already three actors on stage
when Superior and Inferior enter the action and there is
no song at that point that would allow for a change of
costume. The play is unusually serious for an Old Comedy and possibly this was the reason why the original play
failed at the City Dionysia.[73] As a result of this seriousness, there is no celebratory song in the exodus, and this
also is an uncharacteristic omission. A typical Aristophanic Chorus, even if it starts out as hostile to the protagonist, is hardly more than the protagonist’s cheer squad
by the end of the play. In The Clouds however, the Chorus appears sympathetic at first but emerges as a virtual
antagonist by the end of the play.
The play adapts the following elements Old Comedy in a
variety of novel ways.
• Parodos: The arrival of the Chorus in this play is
unusual in that the singing begins offstage some time
before the Chorus appears. It is possible that the
concealed Chorus was not fully audible to the audience and this might have been a factor in the original play’s failure.[80] Moreover, the majestic opening
song is more typical of tragedy than comedy.[81]
• Parabasis: The parabasis proper (lines 518-62)
is composed in eupolidean tetrameter rather than
the conventional anapestic tetrameter. Aristophanes
does not use eupolideans in any other of his extant
plays.[82] The first parabasis (510-626) is otherwise
conventional. However the second parabasis (1113–
30) is in a shortened form, comprising an epirrhema
in trochaic tetrameter but without the songs and the
antepirrhema needed for a conventional, symmetrical scene.
• Agon: The play has two agons. The first is between Superior and Inferior (949-1104). Superior’s
arguments are in conventional anapestic tetrameter but Inferior presents his case in iambic tetrameters, a variation that Aristophanes reserves for arguments that are not to be taken seriously.[83] A similar distinction between anapestic and iambic arguments is made in the agons in The Knights[84] and
The Frogs.[85] The second agon in The Clouds is between Strepsiades and his son (1345–1451) and it is
in iambic tetrameter for both speakers.
• Episodes: Informal dialogue between characters
is conventionally in iambic trimeter. However the
scene introducing Superior and Inferior is conducted
in short lines of anapestic rhythm (889-948). Later,
in the agon between Strepsiades and his son, a line
of dialogue in iambic trimeter (1415) - adapted from
Euripides play Alcestis - is inserted into a speech in
iambic tetrameter, a transition that seems uncharacteristically clumsy.[86]
5 Translations
• Benjamin Dann Walsh, The Comedies of Aristophanes, vol. 1, 1837. 3 vols. English metre.
• William James Hickie, 1853 - prose: full text
• Benjamin B. Rogers, 1924 - verse
• Arthur S. Way, 1934 - verse
• Robert Henning Webb, 1960 - verse
• William Arrowsmith, 1962 - prose and verse
• Thomas G. West and Grace Starry West, 1984 prose
• Peter Meineck, 1998 - prose
• Charles Connaghan (prose), John Curtis Franklin
(metrical translation of choral lyrics), 2000
• Ian Johnston, 2003 - verse
• Edward Tomlinson, Simon R. B. Andrews and
Alexandra Outhwaite, 2007 - prose and verse (for
Kaloi k'Agathoi)
• George Theodoridis, 2007 - prose: full text
• Michael A. Tueller, 2011 - prose
8
6
8
Adaptations
• Andrew David Irvine, 2007 - prose, Socrates on
Trial: A play based on Aristophanes’ Clouds and
Plato’s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, adapted for
modern performance
7
Performances
• The Oxford University Dramatic Society staged it
in the original Greek in 1905, with C.W.Mercer
as Strepsiades and Compton Mackenzie as
Pheidippides.[87]
CITATIONS
[16] Clouds (1970), pages 119-20 note 523
[17] Clouds (1970)
[18] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds
A.Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973
[19] Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus II F.Hall and W.Geldart,
Index Nominum
[20] Wealth II 720
[21] Knights 55, 76, 355, 702, 742, 846, 1005, 1058, 1167,
1172, 1201; Peace 219, 665; Lysistrata 104, 1163
[22] Knights 582; Wasps 1076; Birds 1704; Thesmophoriazusae 1192
[23] Wasps 715
• Nottingham New Theatre staged an adaptation of
the play from 17–20 March 2009. It was directed
by Michael Moore; with Alexander MacGillivray as
Strepsiades, Lucy Preston as Pheidippides and Topher Collins as Socrates.
[24] Wasps 236
[25] Thesmophoriazusae 855
[26] Knights 560; Birds 868
[27] Frogs 1057, 1212
8
Citations
[28] Wasps 159, 1446; Birds 618, 716
[29] Wasps 1247, 1274; Lysistrata 1152; Plutus 522
[1] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds
Alan Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, page 37
[2] ibidem
[30] Acharnians 181, 697, 698; Knights 781, 1334; Wasps 711;
Birds 246; Thesmophoriazusae 806; Frogs 1296
[3] Clouds (1970), page XXIX
[31] Peace 1253; Birds 504, 1133; Thesmophoriazusae 856,
878; Frogs 1206, 1406; Wealth II 178
[4] Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds
A.Somerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, page 107
[32] Birds 485, 707, 1030; Thesmophoriazusae 734, 1175; Lysistrata 229, 1261; Ecclesiazusae 319
[5] Rhetoric, Comedy and the Violence of Language in Aristophanes’ Clouds Daphne O'Regan, Oxford University Press
US 1992, page 6
[33] The Birds 1009
[6] Aristophanes:Old-and-new Comedy - Six essays in perspective Kenneth.J.Reckford, UNC Press 1987, page 393
[35] Histories ii.2
[7] The Apology translated by Benjamin Jowett, section4
[8] Apology, Greek text, edited J Burnet, section 19c
[9] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds A.
Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, pages 16-17
[10] Early Greek Philosophy Martin West, in 'Oxford History of the Classical World', J.Boardman, J.Griffin and
O.Murray (eds), Oxford University Press 1986, page 121
[11] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds A.
Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, pages 108
[34] The Birds 692
[36] Knights 604,608; Birds 968, 969; Lysistrata 91; Thesmophoriazusae 404, 648; Frogs 443; Ecclesiazousae 199,
828; Wealth II 149, 173, 303
[37] Birds 1073; Frogs 320
[38] Acharnians 614
[39] Lysistrata 2
[40] Thesmophoriazusae 130
[41] Knights 1055; Wasps 438; Birds 1407; Wealth II 773
[42] The Knights 511
[12] Clouds (1970), page XVIII
[43] Peace 418; Frogs 1090
[13] Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, Clouds A. Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1975, page 31
[44] Frogs 963
[14] Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, Clouds A. Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1975, page 16
[15] Clouds (1970), page XIX
[45] Frogs 855, 864
[46] Peace 420
[47] Knights 1189; Lysistrata 347
9
[48] Frogs 863
[49] Birds 1660
[50] Wasps 1408, 1412; Birds 1296, 1564
[51] Wasps 1269
[52] Knights 283; Peace 606; Lysistrata 530
[53] Acharnians 386
[54] Acharnians 88, 844; Knights 958, 1294, 1372; Wasps 19,
20, 822; Peace 446, 673, 675, 1295; Birds 289, 290, 1475;
Thesmophoriazusae 605
[55] Knights 1374; Wasps 1187; Birds 831; Lysistrata 621,
1092; Frogs 48, 57, 426
[56] Acharnians 134, 155; Knights 608; Wasps 42, 47, 418,
599, 1220, 1236
[57] Acharnians 6, 300, 377, 502, 659; Wasps 62, 197, 242,
409, 596, 759, 1220, 1224, 1237, 1285; Peace 47, 270,
313, 648; Frogs 569, 577
[58] Acharnians 846; Knights 1304, 1363; Wasps 1007; Peace
681, 921, 1319; Thesmophoriazusae 840; Frogs 570
[59] Wasps 1397; Thesmophoriazusae 375; Ecclesiazusae 41
[60] Wasps line 84
[61] Aristophanes:Wasps D.MacDowell, Oxford University
Press 1971, page 139 note 74
[62] The Wasps 74, 466, 1267
[63] Thucydides iv 66.1, 101.2
[64] Acharnians 1150
[65] Frogs 13
[66] Peace 798, 800
[67] Peace 1089, 1096; Birds 575, 910, 914; Frogs 1034
[78] Postmodern Platos Catherine H.Zuckert, University of
Chicago Press 1996, page 133, commenting on Socrates
and Aristophanes by Leo Strauss, University of Chicago
Press 1994
[79] Clouds (1970), pages XXVIII-XXIX
[80] Clouds (1970), page 99 note 275-90
[81] Clouds (1970), page XXVIII
[82] Clouds (1970), page 119 note 518-62
[83] Aristophanes:Wasps D.MacDowell (ed.), Oxford University Press 1971, page 207 note 546-630
[84] Knights 756-940
[85] Frogs 895-1098
[86] Aristophanes:Wasps D.MacDowell (ed.), Oxford University Press 1971, page 187 note 1415
[87] Times review March 2nd 1905
9 References
• Dover, K.J. (1970). Aristophanes: Clouds. Oxford
University Press.
• Pierre Brulé, “Les Nuées et le problème de
l'incroyance au Ve siècle,” in Pierre Brulé (ed.), La
norme en matière religieuse en Grèce ancienne. Actes
du XIIe colloque international du CIERGA (Rennes,
septembre 2007) (Liège, 2009) (Kernos Supplément, 21), 49-67.
• Irvine, Andrew David (2008). Socrates on Trial: A
play based on Aristophanes’ Clouds and Plato’s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, adapted for modern performance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
ISBN 978-0-8020-9783-5 (cloth); ISBN 978-08020-9538-1 (paper)
[68] Hecuba line 159 and 171
[69] Alcestis 691
[70] Aristophanes:Wasps D.MacDowell, Oxford University
Press 1971, pages 326-7 note 1501
10 External links
• Works related to The Clouds at Wikisource
[71] Peace 697-8; Birds 919
•
[72] Acharnians 10; Birds 807; Lysistrata 188; Thesmophoriazusae 134
• The Clouds translated by William James Hickie' at
Project Gutenberg
[73] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds
A.Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, page 109
• The Clouds translated by Ian Johnston
[74] Clouds (1970), pages XIV-XV
• The Clouds: A Study Guide
[75] Postmodern Platos Catherine H.Zuckert, University of
Chicago Press 1996, page 135
[76] The Socratic Movement Paul Vander Waerdt, Cornell University Press 1994, page 74
[77] Clouds (1970), pages XXII
• John Curtis Franklin - Aristophanes Clouds Essay
• On Satire in Aristophanes’s The Clouds has a very
good analysis of The Clouds and on satire in general.(Includes full version of the text with commentaries)
10
11
11
11.1
TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES
Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
Text
• The Clouds Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clouds?oldid=675748345 Contributors: Mav, SimonP, Ezubaric, Two halves,
Asilvahalo, Chinju, Ihcoyc, TUF-KAT, Cimon Avaro, Richj, Charles Matthews, Adam Bishop, Furrykef, Ardeo, Lupin, Dersen, Alensha, Prosfilaes, RetiredUser2, Yossarian, TheObtuseAngleOfDoom, Gloucks, Maksym Ye., Paul August, Bender235, ESkog, Tgies, Mr.
Billion, Wareh, Bobo192, Brainy J, MPerel, Acb, Saga City, Deror avi, Jjurquia, Canisestmortis, Eubot, Chadamir, Srleffler, EamonnPKeane, YurikBot, Wavelength, Ravenous, Badagnani, Tomisti, SmackBot, InverseHypercube, Jtuba, Eskimbot, Marktreut, Gilliam,
Hmains, Chris the speller, Bluebot, Thumperward, Bob the ducq, Cjnmoerman, Darth Panda, WikiPedant, Ioscius, Fuhghettaboutit, Cybercobra, “alyosha”, J.smith, Lucretius~enwiki, RGCorris, Kripkenstein, Tawkerbot2, Bubbha, MicahDCochran, Neelix, Gregbard, Cydebot,
Thijs!bot, NeilEvans, Courtjester555, S. Douglas Olson, Magioladitis, Galifardeu, Solowords, Animum, Schmloof, J.delanoy, Medellia, It Is
Me Here, Collegebookworm, MAPip43, Matthew.hartington, JameiLei, TXiKiBoT, Ziggaway, Billinghurst, TheCataphract, SRBAndrews,
Doctorfluffy, Randy Kryn, Myrvin, ClueBot, SummerWithMorons, RODERICKMOLASAR, Mild Bill Hiccup, Richard E. Davies, Catalographer, DumZiBoT, SilvonenBot, AutoSnakes, Osarius, Addbot, LaaknorBot, Roux, Abiyoyo, Ettrig, Fraggle81, Piano non troppo, Abce2,
Omnipaedista, Kenilworth Terrace, DrilBot, Esseinrebusinanetamenfatearenecessest, The Phrontistery, MastiBot, Tim1357, Innotata, Prof
doug, Amphitryoniades, Jfmantis, FetchcommsAWB, The Stick Man, EmausBot, WikitanvirBot, Dewritech, Wikipelli, ChuispastonBot,
Sp4cetiger, ClueBot NG, Davidiad, Nungalpiriggal, Zedshort, Frosty, Epicgenius, CiprianAgapi, 7532665a, Ryanswear, Kvaid9298, Hellobutterfly and Anonymous: 106
11.2
Images
11.3
Content license
• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
This article is about the play by Aristophanes. For other
uses, see Cloud (disambiguation).
“Thinkery” redirects here. For the Austin organization,
see The Thinkery.
taining the distance jumped by a flea (a flea’s foot, created
from a minuscule imprint in wax), the exact cause of the
buzzing noise made by a gnat (its rear end resembles a
trumpet) and a new use for a large pair of compasses (as
a kind of fishing-hook for stealing cloaks from pegs over
the gymnasium wall). Impressed, Strepsiades begs to be
introduced to the man behind these discoveries. The wish
is soon granted: Socrates appears overhead, wafted in a
basket at the end of a rope, the better to observe the Sun
and other meteorological phenomena. The philosopher
descends and quickly begins the induction ceremony for
the new elderly student, the highlight of which is a parade
of the Clouds, the patron goddesses of thinkers and other
layabouts. The Clouds arrive singing majestically of the
regions whence they arose and of the land they have now
come to visit, loveliest in all being Greece. Introduced to
them as a new devotee, Strepsiades begs them to make
him the best orator in Greece by a hundred miles. They
reply with the promise of a brilliant future. Socrates leads
him into the dingy Thinkery for his first lesson and The
Clouds step forward to address the audience.
The Clouds (Ancient Greek: Νεφέλαι Nephelai)
is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright
Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical
Athens. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia
in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming last of
the three plays competing at the festival that year. It
was revised between 420-417 BC and thereafter it was
circulated in manuscript form.[3] No copy of the original production survives, and scholarly analysis indicates
that the revised version is an incomplete form of Old
Comedy. This incompleteness, however, is not obvious
in translations and modern performances.[4] The Clouds
can be considered not only the world’s first extant 'comedy of ideas’[5] but also a brilliant and successful example of that genre.[6] The play gained notoriety for its
caricature of Socrates ever since its mention in Plato's
Apology as a factor contributing to the philosopher’s trial Putting aside their cloud-like costumes, The Chorus declares that this is the author’s cleverest play and that it cost
and execution.[7][8]
him the greatest effort. It reproaches the audience for the
play’s failure at the festival, where it was beaten by the
works of inferior authors, and it praises the author for
1 Plot
originality and for his courage in lampooning influential
politicians such as Cleon. The Chorus then resumes its
The play begins with Strepsiades suddenly sitting up in appearance as clouds, promising divine favours if the aubed while his son, Pheidippides, remains blissfully asleep dience punishes Cleon for corruption and rebuking Athein the bed next to him. Strepsiades complains to the au- nians for messing about with the calendar, since this has
dience that he is too worried about household debts to get put Athens out of step with the moon.
any sleep – his wife (the pampered product of an aristocratic clan) has encouraged their son’s expensive interest Socrates returns to the stage in a huff, protesting against
in horses. Strepsiades, having thought up a plan to get out the ineptitude of his new elderly student. He summons
of debt, wakes the youth gently and pleads with him to do Strepsiades outside and attempts further lessons, includsomething for him. Pheidippides at first agrees to do as ing a form of meditative incubation in which the old man
he’s asked then changes his mind when he learns that his lies under a blanket while thoughts are supposed to arise
father wants to enroll him in The Thinkery, a school for in his mind naturally. The incubation results in Strepsiwastrels and bums that no self-respecting, athletic young ades masturbating under the blanket and finally Socrates
man dares to be associated with. Strepsiades explains that refuses to have anything more to do with him. The Clouds
students of The Thinkery learn how to turn inferior argu- advise him to find someone younger to do the learning
ments into winning arguments and this is the only way he for him. His son, Pheidippides, subsequently yields to
can beat their aggrieved creditors in court. Pheidippides threats by Strepsiades and reluctantly returns with him to
however will not be persuaded and Strepsiades decides to the Thinkery, where they encounter the personified arguenroll himself in The Thinkery in spite of his advanced ments Superior and Inferior, associates of Socrates. Superior Argument and Inferior Argument debate with each
age.
other over which of them can offer the best education.
There he meets a student who tells him about some of Superior Argument sides with Justice and the gods, ofthe recent discoveries made by Socrates, the head of The fering to prepare Pheidippides for an earnest life of disThinkery, including a new unit of measurement for ascer1
2
2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
cipline, typical of men who respect the old ways; Inferior
Argument, denying the existence of Justice, offers to prepare him for a life of ease and pleasure, typical of men
who know how to talk their way out of trouble. At the end
of the debate, a quick survey of the audience reveals that
buggers - people schooled by Inferior Arguments - have
got into the most powerful positions in Athens. Superior Argument accepts his inevitable defeat, Inferior Argument leads Pheidippides into the Thinkery for a lifechanging education and Strepsiades goes home happy.
The Clouds step forward to address the audience a second
time, demanding to be awarded first place in the festival
competition, in return for which they promise good rains
- otherwise they'll destroy crops, smash roofs and spoil
weddings.
The story resumes with Strepsiades returning to The
Thinkery to fetch his son. A new Pheidippides emerges,
startlingly transformed into the pale nerd and intellectual
bum that he had once feared to become. Rejoicing in
the prospect of talking their way out of financial trouble,
Strepsiades leads the youth home for celebrations, just
moments before the first of their aggrieved creditors arrives with a witness to summon him to court. Strepsiades
comes back on stage, confronts the creditor and dismisses
him contemptuously. A second creditor arrives and receives the same treatment before Strepsiades returns indoors to continue the celebrations. The Clouds sing ominously of a looming debacle and Strepsiades again comes
back on stage, now in distress, complaining of a beating
that his new son has just given him in a dispute over the
celebrations. Pheidippides emerges coolly and insolently
debates with his father a father’s right to beat his son and
a son’s right to beat his father. He ends by threatening to
beat his mother also, whereupon Strepsiades flies into a
rage against The Thinkery, blaming Socrates for his latest troubles. He leads his slaves, armed with torches and
mattocks, in a frenzied attack on the disreputable school.
The alarmed students are pursued offstage and the Chorus, with nothing to celebrate, quietly departs.
2
Historical background
The Clouds represents a departure from the main themes
of Aristophanes’ early plays - Athenian politics, the
Peloponnesian War and the need for peace with Sparta.
The Spartans had recently stopped their annual invasions
of Attica after the Athenians had taken Spartan hostages
in the Battle of Sphacteria in 425 and this, coupled with a
defeat suffered by the Athenians at the Battle of Delium
in 424, had provided the right conditions for a truce. Thus
the original production of The Clouds in 423 BC came at
a time when Athens was looking forward to a period of
peace. Cleon, the populist leader of the pro-war faction
in Athens, was a target in all Aristophanes’ early plays and
his attempts to prosecute Aristophanes for slander in 426
had merely added fuel to the fire. Aristophanes however
had singled Cleon out for special treatment in his previous play The Knights in 424 and there are relatively few
references to him in The Clouds.
Freed from political and war-time issues, Aristophanes
focuses in The Clouds on a broader issue that underlies
many conflicts depicted in his plays - the issue of Old
versus New, or the battle of ideas.[9] The scientific speculations of Ionian thinkers such as Thales in the sixth century were becoming commonplace knowledge in Aristophanes’ time and this had led, for instance, to a growing belief that civilized society was not a gift from the
gods but rather had developed gradually from primitive
man’s animal-like existence.[10] Around the time that The
Clouds was produced, Democritus at Abdera was developing an atomistic theory of the cosmos and Hippocrates
at Cos was establishing an empirical and science-like approach to medicine. Anaxagoras, whose works were studied by Socrates, was living in Athens when Aristophanes
was a youth. Anaxagoras enjoyed the patronage of influential figures such as Pericles, but oligarchic elements
also had political advocates and Anaxagoras was charged
with impiety and expelled from Athens around 437 BC.
The battle of ideas had led to some unlikely friendships that cut across personal and class differences,
such as between the socially alert Pericles and the unworldly Anaxagoras, and between the handsome aristocrat, Alcibiades, and the ugly plebeian, Socrates. Socrates
moreover had distinguished himself from the crowd by
his heroism in the retreat from the battle of Delium
and this might have further singled him out for ridicule
among his comrades.[11] He was forty-five years old and
in good physical shape when The Clouds was produced[12]
yet he had a face that lent itself easily to caricature by
mask-makers and possibly that was a contributing reason for the frequent characterization of him by comic
poets.[13] In fact one of the plays that defeated The Clouds
in 423 was called Connus, written by Ameipsias, and
it too lampooned Socrates.[14] There is a famous story,
as reported for example by Aelian, according to which
Socrates cheerfully rose from his seat during the performance of The Clouds and stood in silent answer to the
whispers among foreigners in the festival audience: “Who
is Socrates?"[15]
2.1 Places and people in The Clouds
At one point in The Clouds, the Chorus declares that the
author chose Athens for the first performance of the play,
implying that he could have produced it somewhere else
(line 523). In fact, the Chorus is joking. Tragic poets
sometimes produced their plays in other cities (Euripides'
play Andromache for example was possibly performed
in Argos just before The Clouds appeared at the City
Dionysia)[16] yet comic poets in Aristophanes’ time wrote
specifically for local audiences and their plays were studded with topical jokes that only a local audience could
understand. The following places and personalities are
2.1
Places and people in The Clouds
mentioned in The Clouds and they are explained and listed
in various editions of the play.[17][18][19]
Places
• Cicynna (or Kikynna): A deme belonging to the
tribe Acamantis. It is Strepsiades’ deme (line 134)
and he looks for it incredulously on a map in The
Thoughtery (210).
• Sphettus: Another deme belonging to the Acamantis
tribe. It is said to be the deme of Chaerephon (line
156) and it is mentioned also in Wealth II [20]
• Pylos: A locale associated with the Battle of Sphacteria, in which Athenians captured many Spartan hoplites. The students of The Thoughtery resemble the
Spartan captives (line 186). Pylos is frequently mentioned in other plays.[21]
• Attica: The country around Athens. It appears on a
map in The Thoughtery (line 209) and it is home to
the Attic look - the arch look of a trouble-maker who
pretends to be the victim (1176). Attica is rarely
mentioned by name in the surviving plays.[22]
3
• Cynthia or Mount Cynthus: A rocky height on Delos
associated with the cult of Apollo. It is mentioned
by the Clouds in an invocation to Apollo (line 596).
• Ephesus: The site of a cult of Artemis (Diana of the
Ephesians) whose devotees included Lydians. Ephesus and the Lydians are mentioned by the Clouds
in an invocation to Artemis (line 598).
• Parnassus: A mountain associated with the cult of
Dionysus (as practised by the Maenads) overlooking Delphi, one of the most sacred sites in ancient
Greece. It is mentioned by the Clouds in an invocation to Dionysus (line 603). The mountain is mentioned also in The Frogs[27] and there are references
to the town and people of Delphi in The Wasps and
The Birds.[28]
• Thessaly: A region whose women were popularly
associated with witchcraft. Strepsiades thinks of
buying a Thessalian slave who could postpone the
monthly settlement of accounts by bewitching the
moon for him (line 749). Thessaly is mentioned in
three other plays.[29]
• Euboia: A long island adjacent to Attica. It had revolted from Athenian control in 446 BC and it had
been 'laid out' (flattened as in a map) by an Athenian army that included Strepsiades (line 211). The
island is mentioned also in The Wasps.[23]
• Marathon: The site of Athens’ historic victory
against the Persians. The generation of Athenians
responsible for that victory were men educated in
the Superior way (line 986). There are patriotic
mentions of Marathon in several plays.[30]
• Byzantium: A Greek colony that used iron
coinage. It is mentioned only because of a pun on
'nomisma'/'nomos’ - currency/custom (line 249). It
is mentioned again in The Wasps.[24]
• Academy: The site of a public park and gymnasium just outside Athens (later famous as the site of
Plato’s school). A student trained in the Superior
way would exercise there among the sacred olives
(line 1005).
• Nile, Maiotis, Mimas: A river, marsh and mountain respectively. They are mentioned by Socrates
as the kind of places from which the Clouds might
set out for Athens (lines 272-3). The Nile is mentioned again in Thesmophoriazusae.[25]
• Parnes: A mountain north of Athens. Socrates instructs Strepsiades to look towards the mountain for
the arriving clouds (line 323) but in fact the mountain cannot be seen from the Theatre of Dionysus.
• Thurioi: A colony founded by Athens between
446-443 BC. Its foundation had inspired numerous
oracle-mongers and these are included among the
clients of the Clouds (line 332).
• Sounion: A promontory associated with the cult of
Poseidon. It is sometimes struck by thunderbolts
and this is proof that the cosmos are governed by
material causes (line 401). Sounion is mentioned in
two other plays.[26]
• The cave of Trophonius: The site of a terrifying
Boeotian cult to the hero Trophonius. Strepsiades
dreads entering The Thoughtery just as if it were this
cave (line 508)
• Baths of Heracles: Natural springs of warm water
were named after Heracles, who had received them
as a gift from Hephaestus. They are mentioned by
Inferior as proof that men who indulge in such luxuries are manly (line 1051).
• Egypt: A land notoriously subject to unseasonable annual flooding by the Nile. According to the
Clouds, any judge who fails to award victory to this
play might wish to have been born in Egypt after
they've finished with him (line 1130). Egypt is a curiosity referred to in several plays.[31]
Foreigners and foreign influences
• Persians: A dominant force in Asia, they were popularly associated with despotism and with luxurious indolence. Thus women’s shoes in Athens were
known as 'Persian', contrary to men’s shoes, which
were known as Laconian. Socrates makes some Persian shoes for a flea in an effort to measure the length
of a flea’s foot (line 151). There are references to
Persians and their influence in other plays.[32]
4
2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• Thales: A 6th-century Ionian philosopher from
Miletus. He is a mere nobody compared to Socrates
(line 180). His name appears also in The Birds.[33]
• Prodicus: A contemporary sophist and natural
philosopher from Ceos but resident in Athens. The
Clouds respect him for his wisdom (line 361). He is
mentioned also in The Birds.[34]
• Herodotus:
A contemporary historian from
Halicarnassus famous for his exotic accounts of
various nations and their customs, which many
Athenians found hilarious. A word used to denote
a very old-fashioned individual (bekkeselene!, line
398) might have been an allusion by Aristophanes
to Herodotus’ account of an experiment by the
Egyptian Pharaoh to determine humanity’s original
language, which Pharaoh concluded to be Phrygian
on the grounds that the Phrygian word for bread
(bekkos) was the first word spoken by some infants
who had never been taught to speak.[35] There
are also comic allusions to Herodotus in The
Acharnians.
• Corinthians: Allies of the Spartans and ancient rivals of the Athenians in trade. A half pun identifies them with bugs (coreis) when Strepsiades complains that he has been bitten by Corinthians (line
710). There are many references in the other plays
to Corinth and its citizens.[36]
• Diagoras: An free-thinker from Melos and a resident of Athens, popularly believed to be an atheist.
The Melian is used as an epithet for Socrates (line
830) apparently on the grounds that he is an atheist
like Diagoras. Diagoras is mentioned in two other
plays.[37]
Religious, historic and mythical identities
• Coisura: A mostly legendary figure and a byword
for luxury. Strepsiades regards her as a symbol of
his own wife (lines 48, 800). Coisura is mentioned
earlier in The Acharnians.[38]
• Colias: An epithet of Aphrodite, who had a sanctuary of that name at Anaphlystus, on the coast near
Sounion. Strepsiades compares his wife to Colias
and to the Genetullidae, women’s goddesses who
shared the Anaphlystus sanctuary (line 52). Colias
and the Genetullidae are mentioned also in Lysistrata[39] and the latter once more in Thesmophoriazusae.[40]
• Athamas: A legendary king of Boeotia and the subject of two plays by Sophocles, in one of which
he is depicted as a sacrificial victim at the altar of
Zeus. Strepsiades fears that his induction into The
Thoughtery will turn him into another Athamas (line
257).
• Cecrops: A legendary king of Athens. He is mentioned by the Clouds as they arrive in Athens (line
301) and there are references to him in the other
plays.[41]
• Typhoeus: A hundred-headed giant. Strepsiades
mentions him when describing clouds in exaggerated terms loosely borrowed from dithyrambic poets (line 336). There is another mention in The
Knights.[42]
• Eleusinian Mysteries: An Athenian cult of Demeter
with secret rites promising eternal life to initiates.
The Clouds refer to the mysteries without naming
them (lines 302-4).
• Panathenaia: A yearly festival celebrating Athena’s
birth. Strepsiades compares the noise of thunder to
the sound made in his stomach by festival soup (line
386) and Superior objects to feeble performances of
the Pyrrhic dance that he has witnessed at the festival
lately (988). The Panathenaia is mentioned by name
in two other plays.[43]
• Kronia: A humble festival leading up to the Panathenaia. Socrates accuses Strepsiades of smelling of
this festival i.e. being old-fashioned (line 398).
• Diasia: A winter festival. Strepsiades was barbecuing meat for relatives at this festival when a bladder exploded like lightning (line 408) and he once
bought a toy cart for Pheidippides during the festivities (864).
• Electra: A mythical figure spurned by her own
mother. This play resembles her i.e. it was spurned
by the original audience (line 534).
• Memnon and Sarpedon: Mythical heroes. Their
deaths are mourned by the gods on days that are
marked for festivals by the revised Athenian calendar (line 622). Memnon is mentioned again in The
Frogs.[44]
• Telephus: A legendary Mysian king and the subject
of a controversial play by Euripides in which he appeared as a beggar. Superior compares Inferior to a
beggar-like Telephus (line 922). Aristophanes lampoons the Euripidean play in The Acharnians and
Thesmophoriazusae. Telephus is mentioned also in
The Frogs.[45]
• Dipolieia: A sober festival in honour of Zeus Polieus
featuring a sacrificial rite called Bouphonia. Inferior accuses Superior of resembling this festival and
of being full of Bouphonia i.e. he is old fashioned
(lines 984-5). The Dipolieia is mentioned also in
Peace.[46]
• Tritogeneia: An epithet for Athena. Superior considers a poor performance of the pyrrhic dance to
be an insult to Tritogeneia (line 989). The epithet is
used also in Knights and Lysistrata.[47]
2.1
Places and people in The Clouds
5
• Iapetus: A Titan and brother of Cronos. Young men
sometimes use his name as an epithet for their fathers i.e. their fathers are old-fashioned (line 998).
• Simon: He was well known to his contemporaries as
a thief of public money and a perjuror (lines 351,
399), otherwise obscure.
• Peleus: A mythical hero who was banished to the
wilderness after being falsely accused of adultery
and who was given a knife by Hephaestus as protection from wild beasts. Superior cites the gift of
the knife as an example of the rewards that come
with virtue (lines 1063). Superior also mentions
his subsequent marriage to Thetis as another reward
for virtue (1067). Peleus is mentioned again in The
Frogs.[48]
• Cleonymus: A conspicuous figure in Athens, he had
recently lost his shield in the retreat from Delium.
The Clouds imitate him when they seem to resemble
timid deer (line 353), he is a perjuror (400) and his
name should be declined like a feminine noun (67380). He is frequently the target of jokes.[54]
• Solon: A lawgiver often credited with establishing
Athenian democracy. The educated Pheidippides
demonstrates how Solon’s intentions can be interpreted so as to subvert his laws (line 1187). Solon is
also named in The Birds.[49]
• Protenthai: Officials responsible for preparing food
for the Apaturia festivals. They are suspected of
sampling the food (line 1198).
Athenians
• Megacles: An illustrious name denoting various
aristocrats in Athenian history. Strepsiades’ aristocratic wife can number more than one Megacles in
her family tree (lines 46, 70, 124, 815).
• Cleisthenes: A notoriously effete man. The Clouds
imitate him when they seem to resemble women
(line 355). He appears as a character in The Acharnians and Thesmophoriazusae and he is also mentioned in other plays.[55]
• Theorus: An associate of Cleon. He is another man
who should be struck by thunderbolts for perjury
(line 400). He is named in another three plays.[56]
• Cleon: The populist leader of the pro-war faction.
He was at the height of his power when Aristophanes
attacked him in his plays (line 549), meteorological
omens had warned Athens not to trust him and the
gods will favour Athens once more after he is punished for corruption (581-91). He was the antagonist in The Knights, where he was represented as
a Paphlagonian slave, and he is often mentioned in
other early plays.[57]
• Chaerephon: A loyal friend and disciple of Socrates,
well known for his pallor. He is mentioned by name
several times within the play (lines 144, 156, 503,
831, 1465) and some editors include him as a character at the end of the play - a speaking role otherwise denoted in the dramatis personae as 'student'. He is referred to also in The Wasps and The
Birds.[50]
• Hyperbolus: A colleague of Cleon and eventually
his successor as populist leader of Athens. He and
his mother are an easy target for inferior dramatists
(lines 551-58), the wind blew off his chaplet when he
represented Athens at the Amphictyonic League, he
paid a fortune to learn how to speak properly (876)
and he made much more than that through wickedness (1065). He is ridiculed in other plays also.[58]
• Leogoras: A wealthy aristocrat, father of the orator Andocides and related by marriage to Pericles. He bred pheasants (or horses) that Pheidippides wouldn't trade his self-respect for (line 109).
He is named also in The Wasps.[51]
• Sostrate: A common female name used here only
to demonstrate the comic potential of a rational approach to grammar (line 678). The name occurs in
other plays.[59]
• Pericles: The dominant politician in pre-war Athens
who once famously bribed a Spartan general to avoid
battle and subsequently accounted for the bribe as
“lost according to need”. Strepsiades recalls how
Pericles flattened Boeotia (line 213) and he accounts
for the theft of his shoes at The Thoughtery in Periclean terms as “lost according to need” (859). Pericles is mentioned in three other plays.[52]
• Hieronymus, son of Xenophantus: A notoriously
hairy guy. The Clouds imitate him when they seem
to resemble centaurs (line 349). His long hair made
him appear invisible in an earlier play The Acharnians.[53]
• Philoxenus, Amynias, Melesias: Athenians whose
manhood was open to question. Traditional grammar does not always identify the gender of such
names and this might be appropriate in their case
(line 686). Philoxenus was notoriously effete and
he is mentioned again in Wasps.[60] Amynias became a general in the year that The Clouds was
performed and comic poets at about this time lampooned him for his effeminacy, pretensions and financial problems.[61] He too is mentioned again in
The Wasps.[62]
• Pandeletus: Unknown individual, possibly a politician and a sycophant. According to Superior, Inferior feeds on scraps belonging to Pandeletus.
6
3
• Hippocrates: Probably the general reported by
Thucydides to have died in the Battle of Delium,[63]
his sons are mocked in comedy as simpletons. According to Inferior, any student of Superior ends up
resembling the sons of Hippocrates (line 1001).
• Antimachus: A man of this name had been Aristophanes’ choregus in 427-6 BC and he was mocked
in The Acharnians for a lack of generosity.[64] According to Superior, students of Inferior turn out to
be buggers like Antimachus (line 1022).
Poets
• Eupolis: A major comic poet and a rival of Aristophanes. The Chorus accuses him of stealing material for his play Maricas from Aristophanes’ The
Knights and from Phrynichus’ Andromeda (lines
553-6). Phrynichus, the comic poet, is mentioned
again in The Frogs.[65] Eupolis in fact produced Maricas in 421 BC, two years after The Clouds was produced (see The Clouds and Old Comedy).
DISCUSSION
• Carcinus: A naval commander in 431 BC and a
tragic poet. One of his sons, Xenocles, was also
a tragic poet, good enough to defeat Euripides at
the City Dionysia in 415.[70] Strepsiades imagines he
can hear a lament from one of Carcinus’ daemons
(line 1261) though it is unclear if this refers to a
character from one of Carcinus’ plays or if it refers
to Xenocles in tragic mode. Lines from one of their
plays are subsequently parodied in the lament of the
second creditor (lines 1264-5). Carcinus’ sons appeared as dancers in The Wasps and their dancing
skills were subsequently mocked in Peace.
• Simonides: A renowned poet. Strepsiades asked
Pheidippides to recite verses from his poem The
Ram (line 1356) but Pheidipiides dislikes his poetry
(1362). Simonides is mentioned also in Peace and
The Birds.[71]
• Aeschylus: A renowned tragic poet. Strepsiades
likes his poetry but Pheidippides thinks it is full of
smoke (line 1366). Aeschylus is a character in The
Frogs and he is mentioned in other plays.[72]
• Hermippus: Another comic poet, victorious at the
City Dionysia in 436. His play The Breadsellers is 3 Discussion
typical of the works of inferior poets who attack easy
targets (line 557).
Plato appears to have considered The Clouds a contributing factor in Socrates’ trial and execution in 399 BC.
• Stesichorus: A renowned poet from Sicily. He is
There is some support for his opinion even in the modnot mentioned in this play but he is possibly the auern age.[73] Aristophanes’ plays however were generally
thor of a quoted description of Athena as a sacker
unsuccessful in shaping public attitudes on important
of cities (line 967). He is later quoted in Peace.[66]
questions, as evidenced by their ineffectual opposition
• Phrynis: A Mytilenean citharode who won a prize to the Peloponnesian War, demonstrated in the play Lyat the Panathenaea in 456 BC. He is condemned by sistrata, and to populists such as Cleon. Moreover, the
trial of Socrates followed Athens’ traumatic defeat by
Superior as a corruptor of music (line 971).
Sparta, many years after the performance of the play,
• Ceceides: A dithyrambic poet. According to Infe- when suspicions about the philosopher were fuelled by
rior, he is typical of Superior’s old-fashioned tastes public animosity towards his disgraced associates (such
as Alcibiades).[74]
(line 985).
• Homer: The great bard. He denoted the wise counsellor, Nestor, as agoretes (Iliad i.248 and iv.293).
According to Inferior, this is proof that it is alright
to loiter in the agora (line 1056) though in fact it
merely demonstrates a change in the word’s significance. Homer is named in three other plays.[67]
Socrates is presented in The Clouds as a petty thief, a
fraud and a sophist with a specious interest in physical speculations. However, it is still possible to recognize in him the distinctive individual defined in Plato’s
dialogues.[75] The practice of ascetism (as for example
idealized by the Chorus in lines 412-19), disciplined, introverted thinking (as described by the Chorus in lines
700-6) and conversational dialectic (as described by
Socrates in lines 489-90) appear to be caricatures of Socratic behaviours later described more sympathetically
by Plato. The Aristophanic Socrates is much more interested in physical speculations than is Plato’s Socrates
yet it is possible that the real Socrates did take a strong
interest in such speculations during his development as
a philosopher[76] and there is some support for this in
Plato’s dialogue Phaedo 96A.
• Euripides: A renowned tragic poet and a controversial figure in his own time. Laments from one of his
plays [68] are parodied by Strepsiades (lines 718-9
and 1165-6). Pheidippides considers him the cleverest of poets (1377), he particularly enjoys his depiction of incest in Aiolus and he quotes from Alcestis[69] in defense of his right to beat his father (1415).
Euripides is frequently the butt of jokes in Aristophanes’ plays and he appears as a ludicrous character in The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazusae and The It has been argued that Aristophanes caricatured a 'preSocratic' Socrates and that the philosopher depicted by
Frogs.
7
Plato was a more mature thinker who had been influenced by such criticism.[75] Conversely, it is possible that
Aristophanes’ caricature of the philosopher merely reflects his own ignorance of philosophy.[77] According to
yet another view, The Clouds can best be understood in
relation to Plato’s works, as evidence of a historic rivalry
between poetic and philosophical modes of thought.[78]
4
The Clouds and Old Comedy
During the parabasis proper (518-62), the Chorus reveals
that the original play was badly received when it was produced. References in the same parabasis to a play by Eupolis called Maricas (produced in 421) and criticism of
the populist politician Hyperbolus (ostracized in 416) indicate that the second version of The Clouds was probably
composed somewhere between 421-16 BC. The parabasis also includes an appeal to the audience to prosecute
Cleon for corruption. Since Cleon died in 422 it can be
assumed that this appeal was retained from the original
production in 423 and thus the extant play must be a partial revision of the original play.[79]
The revised play is an incomplete form of Old Comedy.
Old Comedy conventionally limits the number of actors
to three or four yet there are already three actors on stage
when Superior and Inferior enter the action and there is
no song at that point that would allow for a change of
costume. The play is unusually serious for an Old Comedy and possibly this was the reason why the original play
failed at the City Dionysia.[73] As a result of this seriousness, there is no celebratory song in the exodus, and this
also is an uncharacteristic omission. A typical Aristophanic Chorus, even if it starts out as hostile to the protagonist, is hardly more than the protagonist’s cheer squad
by the end of the play. In The Clouds however, the Chorus appears sympathetic at first but emerges as a virtual
antagonist by the end of the play.
The play adapts the following elements Old Comedy in a
variety of novel ways.
• Parodos: The arrival of the Chorus in this play is
unusual in that the singing begins offstage some time
before the Chorus appears. It is possible that the
concealed Chorus was not fully audible to the audience and this might have been a factor in the original play’s failure.[80] Moreover, the majestic opening
song is more typical of tragedy than comedy.[81]
• Parabasis: The parabasis proper (lines 518-62)
is composed in eupolidean tetrameter rather than
the conventional anapestic tetrameter. Aristophanes
does not use eupolideans in any other of his extant
plays.[82] The first parabasis (510-626) is otherwise
conventional. However the second parabasis (1113–
30) is in a shortened form, comprising an epirrhema
in trochaic tetrameter but without the songs and the
antepirrhema needed for a conventional, symmetrical scene.
• Agon: The play has two agons. The first is between Superior and Inferior (949-1104). Superior’s
arguments are in conventional anapestic tetrameter but Inferior presents his case in iambic tetrameters, a variation that Aristophanes reserves for arguments that are not to be taken seriously.[83] A similar distinction between anapestic and iambic arguments is made in the agons in The Knights[84] and
The Frogs.[85] The second agon in The Clouds is between Strepsiades and his son (1345–1451) and it is
in iambic tetrameter for both speakers.
• Episodes: Informal dialogue between characters
is conventionally in iambic trimeter. However the
scene introducing Superior and Inferior is conducted
in short lines of anapestic rhythm (889-948). Later,
in the agon between Strepsiades and his son, a line
of dialogue in iambic trimeter (1415) - adapted from
Euripides play Alcestis - is inserted into a speech in
iambic tetrameter, a transition that seems uncharacteristically clumsy.[86]
5 Translations
• Benjamin Dann Walsh, The Comedies of Aristophanes, vol. 1, 1837. 3 vols. English metre.
• William James Hickie, 1853 - prose: full text
• Benjamin B. Rogers, 1924 - verse
• Arthur S. Way, 1934 - verse
• Robert Henning Webb, 1960 - verse
• William Arrowsmith, 1962 - prose and verse
• Thomas G. West and Grace Starry West, 1984 prose
• Peter Meineck, 1998 - prose
• Charles Connaghan (prose), John Curtis Franklin
(metrical translation of choral lyrics), 2000
• Ian Johnston, 2003 - verse
• Edward Tomlinson, Simon R. B. Andrews and
Alexandra Outhwaite, 2007 - prose and verse (for
Kaloi k'Agathoi)
• George Theodoridis, 2007 - prose: full text
• Michael A. Tueller, 2011 - prose
8
6
8
Adaptations
• Andrew David Irvine, 2007 - prose, Socrates on
Trial: A play based on Aristophanes’ Clouds and
Plato’s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, adapted for
modern performance
7
Performances
• The Oxford University Dramatic Society staged it
in the original Greek in 1905, with C.W.Mercer
as Strepsiades and Compton Mackenzie as
Pheidippides.[87]
CITATIONS
[16] Clouds (1970), pages 119-20 note 523
[17] Clouds (1970)
[18] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds
A.Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973
[19] Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus II F.Hall and W.Geldart,
Index Nominum
[20] Wealth II 720
[21] Knights 55, 76, 355, 702, 742, 846, 1005, 1058, 1167,
1172, 1201; Peace 219, 665; Lysistrata 104, 1163
[22] Knights 582; Wasps 1076; Birds 1704; Thesmophoriazusae 1192
[23] Wasps 715
• Nottingham New Theatre staged an adaptation of
the play from 17–20 March 2009. It was directed
by Michael Moore; with Alexander MacGillivray as
Strepsiades, Lucy Preston as Pheidippides and Topher Collins as Socrates.
[24] Wasps 236
[25] Thesmophoriazusae 855
[26] Knights 560; Birds 868
[27] Frogs 1057, 1212
8
Citations
[28] Wasps 159, 1446; Birds 618, 716
[29] Wasps 1247, 1274; Lysistrata 1152; Plutus 522
[1] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds
Alan Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, page 37
[2] ibidem
[30] Acharnians 181, 697, 698; Knights 781, 1334; Wasps 711;
Birds 246; Thesmophoriazusae 806; Frogs 1296
[3] Clouds (1970), page XXIX
[31] Peace 1253; Birds 504, 1133; Thesmophoriazusae 856,
878; Frogs 1206, 1406; Wealth II 178
[4] Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds
A.Somerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, page 107
[32] Birds 485, 707, 1030; Thesmophoriazusae 734, 1175; Lysistrata 229, 1261; Ecclesiazusae 319
[5] Rhetoric, Comedy and the Violence of Language in Aristophanes’ Clouds Daphne O'Regan, Oxford University Press
US 1992, page 6
[33] The Birds 1009
[6] Aristophanes:Old-and-new Comedy - Six essays in perspective Kenneth.J.Reckford, UNC Press 1987, page 393
[35] Histories ii.2
[7] The Apology translated by Benjamin Jowett, section4
[8] Apology, Greek text, edited J Burnet, section 19c
[9] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds A.
Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, pages 16-17
[10] Early Greek Philosophy Martin West, in 'Oxford History of the Classical World', J.Boardman, J.Griffin and
O.Murray (eds), Oxford University Press 1986, page 121
[11] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds A.
Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, pages 108
[34] The Birds 692
[36] Knights 604,608; Birds 968, 969; Lysistrata 91; Thesmophoriazusae 404, 648; Frogs 443; Ecclesiazousae 199,
828; Wealth II 149, 173, 303
[37] Birds 1073; Frogs 320
[38] Acharnians 614
[39] Lysistrata 2
[40] Thesmophoriazusae 130
[41] Knights 1055; Wasps 438; Birds 1407; Wealth II 773
[42] The Knights 511
[12] Clouds (1970), page XVIII
[43] Peace 418; Frogs 1090
[13] Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, Clouds A. Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1975, page 31
[44] Frogs 963
[14] Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, Clouds A. Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1975, page 16
[15] Clouds (1970), page XIX
[45] Frogs 855, 864
[46] Peace 420
[47] Knights 1189; Lysistrata 347
9
[48] Frogs 863
[49] Birds 1660
[50] Wasps 1408, 1412; Birds 1296, 1564
[51] Wasps 1269
[52] Knights 283; Peace 606; Lysistrata 530
[53] Acharnians 386
[54] Acharnians 88, 844; Knights 958, 1294, 1372; Wasps 19,
20, 822; Peace 446, 673, 675, 1295; Birds 289, 290, 1475;
Thesmophoriazusae 605
[55] Knights 1374; Wasps 1187; Birds 831; Lysistrata 621,
1092; Frogs 48, 57, 426
[56] Acharnians 134, 155; Knights 608; Wasps 42, 47, 418,
599, 1220, 1236
[57] Acharnians 6, 300, 377, 502, 659; Wasps 62, 197, 242,
409, 596, 759, 1220, 1224, 1237, 1285; Peace 47, 270,
313, 648; Frogs 569, 577
[58] Acharnians 846; Knights 1304, 1363; Wasps 1007; Peace
681, 921, 1319; Thesmophoriazusae 840; Frogs 570
[59] Wasps 1397; Thesmophoriazusae 375; Ecclesiazusae 41
[60] Wasps line 84
[61] Aristophanes:Wasps D.MacDowell, Oxford University
Press 1971, page 139 note 74
[62] The Wasps 74, 466, 1267
[63] Thucydides iv 66.1, 101.2
[64] Acharnians 1150
[65] Frogs 13
[66] Peace 798, 800
[67] Peace 1089, 1096; Birds 575, 910, 914; Frogs 1034
[78] Postmodern Platos Catherine H.Zuckert, University of
Chicago Press 1996, page 133, commenting on Socrates
and Aristophanes by Leo Strauss, University of Chicago
Press 1994
[79] Clouds (1970), pages XXVIII-XXIX
[80] Clouds (1970), page 99 note 275-90
[81] Clouds (1970), page XXVIII
[82] Clouds (1970), page 119 note 518-62
[83] Aristophanes:Wasps D.MacDowell (ed.), Oxford University Press 1971, page 207 note 546-630
[84] Knights 756-940
[85] Frogs 895-1098
[86] Aristophanes:Wasps D.MacDowell (ed.), Oxford University Press 1971, page 187 note 1415
[87] Times review March 2nd 1905
9 References
• Dover, K.J. (1970). Aristophanes: Clouds. Oxford
University Press.
• Pierre Brulé, “Les Nuées et le problème de
l'incroyance au Ve siècle,” in Pierre Brulé (ed.), La
norme en matière religieuse en Grèce ancienne. Actes
du XIIe colloque international du CIERGA (Rennes,
septembre 2007) (Liège, 2009) (Kernos Supplément, 21), 49-67.
• Irvine, Andrew David (2008). Socrates on Trial: A
play based on Aristophanes’ Clouds and Plato’s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, adapted for modern performance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
ISBN 978-0-8020-9783-5 (cloth); ISBN 978-08020-9538-1 (paper)
[68] Hecuba line 159 and 171
[69] Alcestis 691
[70] Aristophanes:Wasps D.MacDowell, Oxford University
Press 1971, pages 326-7 note 1501
10 External links
• Works related to The Clouds at Wikisource
[71] Peace 697-8; Birds 919
•
[72] Acharnians 10; Birds 807; Lysistrata 188; Thesmophoriazusae 134
• The Clouds translated by William James Hickie' at
Project Gutenberg
[73] Aristophanes:Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds
A.Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, page 109
• The Clouds translated by Ian Johnston
[74] Clouds (1970), pages XIV-XV
• The Clouds: A Study Guide
[75] Postmodern Platos Catherine H.Zuckert, University of
Chicago Press 1996, page 135
[76] The Socratic Movement Paul Vander Waerdt, Cornell University Press 1994, page 74
[77] Clouds (1970), pages XXII
• John Curtis Franklin - Aristophanes Clouds Essay
• On Satire in Aristophanes’s The Clouds has a very
good analysis of The Clouds and on satire in general.(Includes full version of the text with commentaries)
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11.1
TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES
Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
Text
• The Clouds Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clouds?oldid=675748345 Contributors: Mav, SimonP, Ezubaric, Two halves,
Asilvahalo, Chinju, Ihcoyc, TUF-KAT, Cimon Avaro, Richj, Charles Matthews, Adam Bishop, Furrykef, Ardeo, Lupin, Dersen, Alensha, Prosfilaes, RetiredUser2, Yossarian, TheObtuseAngleOfDoom, Gloucks, Maksym Ye., Paul August, Bender235, ESkog, Tgies, Mr.
Billion, Wareh, Bobo192, Brainy J, MPerel, Acb, Saga City, Deror avi, Jjurquia, Canisestmortis, Eubot, Chadamir, Srleffler, EamonnPKeane, YurikBot, Wavelength, Ravenous, Badagnani, Tomisti, SmackBot, InverseHypercube, Jtuba, Eskimbot, Marktreut, Gilliam,
Hmains, Chris the speller, Bluebot, Thumperward, Bob the ducq, Cjnmoerman, Darth Panda, WikiPedant, Ioscius, Fuhghettaboutit, Cybercobra, “alyosha”, J.smith, Lucretius~enwiki, RGCorris, Kripkenstein, Tawkerbot2, Bubbha, MicahDCochran, Neelix, Gregbard, Cydebot,
Thijs!bot, NeilEvans, Courtjester555, S. Douglas Olson, Magioladitis, Galifardeu, Solowords, Animum, Schmloof, J.delanoy, Medellia, It Is
Me Here, Collegebookworm, MAPip43, Matthew.hartington, JameiLei, TXiKiBoT, Ziggaway, Billinghurst, TheCataphract, SRBAndrews,
Doctorfluffy, Randy Kryn, Myrvin, ClueBot, SummerWithMorons, RODERICKMOLASAR, Mild Bill Hiccup, Richard E. Davies, Catalographer, DumZiBoT, SilvonenBot, AutoSnakes, Osarius, Addbot, LaaknorBot, Roux, Abiyoyo, Ettrig, Fraggle81, Piano non troppo, Abce2,
Omnipaedista, Kenilworth Terrace, DrilBot, Esseinrebusinanetamenfatearenecessest, The Phrontistery, MastiBot, Tim1357, Innotata, Prof
doug, Amphitryoniades, Jfmantis, FetchcommsAWB, The Stick Man, EmausBot, WikitanvirBot, Dewritech, Wikipelli, ChuispastonBot,
Sp4cetiger, ClueBot NG, Davidiad, Nungalpiriggal, Zedshort, Frosty, Epicgenius, CiprianAgapi, 7532665a, Ryanswear, Kvaid9298, Hellobutterfly and Anonymous: 106
11.2
Images
11.3
Content license
• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
