The Clouds
The Clouds is yet another play by Aristophanes which was originally performed at the City Dionysia in 423 BC. It came in last place at the festival that year, which led to Aristophanes revising the play and then circulating it as a manuscript. No copy of the original performance survives today.
The play tells the story of Strepsiades, who is struggling in debt due to his son’s gambling. At the time in Ancient Greece, trials were conducted with the accused arguing on their behalf. This meant that a good speaker could talk a jury into thinking a guilty person was innocent, but it also meant that a bad speaker could cause a jury to find them guilty, even though they were innocent. Strepsiades decided that he would go to Socrates to learn how to be better at arguing so that he could get out of paying his son’s debts.
While attending a school run by Socrates, the famous philosopher spends a great deal of time trying to teach Strepsiades. Socrates tries to teach Strepsiades a number of different philosophical forms of thought to great exaggeration, but Strepsiades fails to catch on to anything. Unable to learn anything from Socrates, Strepsiades forces his son to attend Socrates’ teachings.
Strepsiades son ends up being much more teachable, and Socrates deems his teaching a success. Strepsiades then refuses to pay all his son’s debtors, believing that his son will be able to talk him out of any punishment. However, Strepsiades’ son instead argues that he should have every right to beat his father and mother. Strepsiades blames the school for what it turned his son into and decides to burn it down. Then fearing his son and with no one to argue for him, he resigns to paying off the debts.