Clouds

A comedy by the Athenian poet, Aristophanes, produced in 423 BCE and performed at the Great Dionysia in the city of Athens; the play won third place in the competition and was re-written; the original manuscript is lost and the play we call Clouds is the revised version.

Clouds is a comic denunciation of the school of Sokrates (Socrates) and his students; at the outset of the play, the main character, Strepsiades, is bemoaning the crushing debt his squandering son has incurred; in order to legally avoid the debt collectors, Strepsiades decides to enroll in Sokrates’ school so he can learn how to argue his way out of debt regardless of the fact that he actually owes the money to local merchants.

In the play, the chorus assumes the role of Clouds and materialize at the bidding of Sokrates; according to Sokrates, the Clouds are the goddesses of Blather and Meaningless Oratory who look like ordinary clouds but, in reality, supply the inspiration for poets and prophets; the Clouds have supplanted the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympos (Olympus).

There is an interesting exchange between Strepsiades and the Clouds where the Clouds take credit for the rain and thunder which, everyone knows, is the province of Zeus*; the Clouds ask Strepsiades why Zeus never strikes down perjurers and lying politicians with his thunderbolts but regularly hits his own sacred oak trees; Strepsiades has no logical answer and concludes that the Clouds are truly divine.

There ensues an argument between the New Logic and the Old Logic where the simple, practical values of the country folk are berated and the “modern” values of the city dwellers are held aloft as the only workable standards for clear thinking, educated people.

Sokrates decides that the aging scoundrel, Strepsiades, is too dense to learn but accepts Strepsiades’ son, Pheidippides, as a student; Strepsiades is finally betrayed by his son and the Clouds but is given his justified revenge when he burns down Sokrates’ school and Hermes, a true Immortal, arrives to set thing right.

Aristophanes’ acid-like ridicule of Sokrates in Clouds might have set the stage for the tragic and callous trial of Sokrates in 399 BCE; Aristophanes portrayed Sokrates as a blithering intellectual with little or no concern for the consequences of his thoughts or actions; by exercising his poetic license, Aristophanes very possibly caused the death of a brilliant man for the sake of a few laughs.

Aristophanes’ plays are sometimes difficult to appreciate because he was a very contemporary poet, i.e. he was writing for the Athenian audience of his day; he would use puns, parody regional accents and speak directly to the audience in ways that force modern translators to seek out the contextual meaning rather than the literal meaning of the poet’s words; for that reason, I suggest that if you find a translation that is difficult to enjoy, please don’t blame Aristophanes, simply look for a translation that you can enjoy.

When trying to find a readable translator, I suggest Patric Dickinson; you may find his books at your local library in the 882 section but his books are out of print and sometimes difficult to find; I also recommend the Penguin Classics book Lysistrata & Other Plays: The Acharnians, the Clouds, Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Alan H. Sommerstein (Translator), ISBN 0140448144; you can also find this book at your local library or you can purchase it through the Book Shop on this site which is linked to Amazon.com.