Aristophanes ' Clouds Is A Social Commentary On The Nature Of Justice

Socrates does not have good citizen characteristics in Aristophanes’ Clouds , for, he behaves outside the political community. The primary example of his individualism is his disregard for the common beliefs of his society. Greek gods get credited for many of the societies occurrences, yet Socrates tries to disprove the work of the gods throughout his life. In Clouds, Strepsiades goes to Socrates to learn unjust and just speech. The first lesson Socrates teaches him that “we do not swear by the gods”(Aristophanes 248). In response to this statement, he asks Socrates what gods he swear by, and for the rest of the play, Socrates praises the clouds as gods. He is a brazen man who denies the power of Zeus, the infamous god. His beliefs against the greek gods makes Socrates appear as a radical. In connection to his lack of worship for the

“Oedipus Rex” is a play written by Sophocles. At the start of the play, the people of Thebes were asking Oedipus, their King, for help because the city was suffering; the crops were wilting, children were conceived stillborn, and women died from giving birth. Oedipus sent Creon, his brother-in-law, to Delphi to ask the oracle of Apollo about what can save their city. Creon came back and told Oedipus that, in order to save the city, Apollo orders the death or banishment of the person who murdered the former ruler of Thebes, Laius. A close reading of the text shows that justice does not choose who to hurt, so long as it can prevail.

A large aspect of Aristophanes’ Clouds illustrates the tension between the old traditional ways that are steeped in divine law, and Sophistry, a new skeptical individualist movement. In the opening scenes of Clouds, Aristophanes creates an image of a lax society that has been disconnected from the austere piety that previously defined Athenian society. Pheidippides is a reflection of what Athens has become; an impious state that ranks the wants of the individual before anything else. Pheidippides only interest is to maintain his wealthy lifestyle regardless of the impact it has on his father. Pheidippides states that “… Uncle Megacles won’t leave me horseless. I’ll go to him and pay you no mind!” (Aristophanes 125-26). Pheidippides shows that he does not care for the old tradition of piety to one’s family and is

In Aristophanes the Clouds’, Socrates questions the role of the Gods in human’s everyday lives. Even though he explains to Strepsiades that clouds and rain are created by nature, not God, old Strepsiades misunderstands him and thinks Socrates is inventing new Gods. SOCRATES: “What Zeus! Don’t babble. Zeus doesn’t even exist.” (131). STREPSIADES “ And who is it that compels them to be borne along? Isn’t it Zeus?” (131). SOCRATES “Not in the least. It’s ethereal vortex. (131). STREPSIADES “ Vortex? I hadn’t noticed that Zeus doesn’t exist, and that instead of him Vortex is now King.” (131). Euthyphro believes that the traditional stories about the gods are true, unlike Socrates. “… why I am defendant against the indictments: that whenever someone says such things about the gods, I receive them somehow with annoyance…,” (47). Socrates explains to Euthyphro that if the Gods favor something, that alone does not make it pious. Socrates states he believes in “…sun and moon are the gods, as other human beings go. In Plato’s Apology of Socrates, Socrates says that the gods are considered the highest and most respected beings, and the citizens believe that they should follow the laws that were invented by the gods. With that he

His disapproval of Socrates’ teachings also reemphasizes the theme of the obvious disconnect between intellectualism and practicality, as well as philosophical knowledge and reality. Aristophanes provides his readers with an example of Unjust Argument, which is is full of spectacle and understanding which one finds impressive until you realize that his arguments are mere spouts of seemingly significant nonsense that have no actual, authentic importance. Aristophanes is unquestionably taking aim at specific philosophies and teachings of Socrates’ that he believes are potentially harmful to adolescents. The play personifies Socrates's fictional school and its instruction as morally harmful due to the fact that the knowledge it is teaching is ignorance within itself. As on can tell from the text, Socrates is portrayed as supporting the Unjust Argument. Aristophanes explains the Unjust Argument is essentially made up of using purely rhetorical arguments to manipulate people into supporting one’s ideas no matter how moral or truthful one’s beliefs are. The play shows us the potentially devastating consequences of learning perceived knowledge and buying into false intellectualism. Although, it is undeniable that Socrates concerned himself with the practice of logic

Elenchus, as a famous Socratic method for education, uses dialogue and questions to approach philosophical truths. The method is presented in both Plato’s the Euthyphro and Aristophanes’s the Clouds. However, Socrates’s personal image and characteristics, as well as the nature of his questioning differ a lot in these two works. While the Euthyphro presents a philosopher king guiding the less wise people in discovery of truths, Socrates in the Clouds has little interest in either exploring the ethical truth or helping others get out of “Plato’s cave”. Instead, he is portrayed as a sophist who corrupts people with mysterious and useless knowledge, ignores traditional Athenian education, and debilitates Athenian men. Compared to Plato’s focus on Socrates’s wisdom reflected in the dialogue, the Clouds is a distorted interpretation of Socrates’s elenchus. Rather than justifiably criticizing Socrates, Aristophanes depicts him from a common Athenian 's perspective. It is this misunderstanding of the value of Socrates’s teaching by Athenian citizens that constitutes the failure of elenchus in both the Clouds and the Euthyphro.

Sophocles’ Oedipus is one of the most well-known tragic heroes in the history of drama. His strange

Aristophanes’ book The Clouds is based upon an old man seeking knowledge on the subject of eliminating his crippling debt. It is explained that Strepsiades is a humble farmer married to a woman from a wealthy background that has a very aristocratic lifestyle. Strepsiades and is wife also have a son named Pheidippides, who Strepsiades goes on to tell, is the main reason for all of his debt. He says, “But I can’t sleep, wretched me, I’m being bitten— by expenses and stables and my debts because of this son of mine. He with his long hair rides horses and drives a chariot, and dreams of horses, while I am ruined.”

"The Clouds" by Aristophanes - Relevant in Today's World "The Clouds" by Aristophanes, is a play centrally concerned with education. Aristophanes employs satire to illustrate his conservative beliefs. It is intended to show readers that in the tendency to philosophical subtleties lies the neglection of the real needs of the Athenians. According to Aristophanes, philosophical speculation only acts to shake the established foundations of accepted religion, gods, and ideals of morality.

Aristophanes’ play, The Clouds, has an inconsistent message about morality. Morality is the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Morality affects our action, thoughts, and what is perceived as good and bad. For the ancient Greeks nomos was the concept of law and moral conduct, while physis was natural behavior. In both plays there were incidents that have a moral argument. In The Cloud, there are scenes where morality is question about what a character is doing. Compared to Euripides’ play, Electra, morality is a key issue. Some people may say that in The Clouds, the moral argument is view differently than in Electra. In this paper I will argue that the concept of what is moral is different yet the same for the characters in both plays and some characters are more vulnerable to having their sense of morality swayed.

The philosopher goes on to teach Strepsiades everything about the existence of Vortex, the god that “overthrew” Zeus and also of the Clouds, the true arbiters of worldly learning (Clouds 250-829). Inspired by Socrates’s teachings, Strepsiades goes back home and brings his son to the Thinkery in order to have him learn the ways of the Clouds. In turn, Pheidippides embraces the teachings of Socrates even more so than his father, becoming completely inundated in the philosopher’s teachings. He begins to beat his father, because according to Socrates’s teachings, it is a just thing to do (1322-1333). However, during the time in Ancient Greece, such an act was forbidden by law. Pheidippides attempts to justify this to his father in the following passage:

The tale of Oedipus and his prophecy has intrigued not only the citizens of Greece in the ancient times, but also people all over the world for several generations. Most notable about the play was its peculiar structure, causing the audience to think analytically about the outcomes of Oedipus’ actions and how it compares with Aristotle’s beliefs. Another way that the people have examined the drama is by looking at the paradoxes (such as the confrontation of Tiresias and Oedipus), symbols (such as the Sphinx), and morals that has affected their perceptions by the end of the play. Nonetheless, the most important aspect is how relevant the story is and how it has influenced modern ideas like that of Freud and other people of today.

A significant body of work regarding how Xenophon’s Oeconomicus is a response to Aristophanes’ Clouds has been written in the last few decades, beginning with Leo Strauss’s enigmatic book on the dialogue. And while great consideration has gone into the pronounced relationship between these two works, as well as its relation to Xenophon’s treatises on the arts and his Hiero, the fertile Oeconomicus has many more fruits to yield for us regarding a greater understanding of the coherence of the dialogue to Xenophon’s thought.

In this paper, I will discuss a play by Athenian playwright Aristophanes, The Wasps. First, I shall give a brief overview of the The Wasps. Then, I will examine the courtroom scene of the play and argue that Philocleon is not an impartial juror. Next, I will discuss generational gap in Athens. Finally, I will conclude the paper with my outcome of the investigation of the conflict between Misocleon and Philocleon.

Aristophanes’ Clouds, if read hastily, can be interpreted as a mindless satyr play written in 419 BCE. Yet the chorus warns the reader not to expect the play to have farcical ploys like “a hanging phallus stitched on” the actors to evoke a laugh, but has underlying seriousness as “she [the play] comes in trusting only her words” (Clouds 538-44). Even if the play does use some low devices, the play’s message is sophisticated and can be read as a warning to Socrates. Aristophanes is a “friendly critic” of Socrates and warns Socrates to change his ways for Athens and for the good of himself (Whidden). Plato’s Symposium and especially his Apology of Socrates justify the claims made in Clouds about the dangers of philosophy and Socrates to