2
The Clouds is a work, to be sure, whose focus is the effect Socrates has on several of his
fellow Athenians, but it can only show this effect by mocking either that which affects or is
effected. Aristophanes’ brilliance lies in his ability to do both; the caricature of Socrates
develops its full significance within a larger, more comprehensive framework. The Clouds
sketches this framework by focusing our attention on a particular family faced with problems that
can and do arise in the course of everyday life. The plot’s main character, Strepsiades, is a poor
rustic burdened by obligations foisted upon him both by nature and convention.
3
This simple
farmer has been driven to the brink of bankruptcy by debts that have come due, but which he can
not repay. He has incurred these debts, which now threaten to take all of his property and
sustenance, because of his son Pheidippides’ love of horses and horsemanship. Nature rewarded
Strepsiades with a child whose tastes exceed his father’s means, a reward that led the doting
father to incur exorbitant debt to satisfy those tastes. Now, on the verge of those debts coming
due, Strepsiades must face the prospect of certain economic ruin, a situation sure to estrange him
from his simple way of life. It is against this backdrop of desperation, and thus with an air of
dubiousness, that Strepsiades first considers the usefulness of Socrates and his wisdom.
Who is Socrates?
3
All in-text references will be to Aristophanes, Clouds, in Four Texts on Socrates, trans.
Thomas West (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984).
Convention