Notes on Aristophanes and Sokrates from The Clouds

Aristophanes' Critique of Athenian Society

Aristophanes portrays Strepsiades as a figure corrupted by the move from the countryside to Athens.
Strepsiades' aristocratic marriage and his son's playboy lifestyle serve as a warning against the perils of city life and imperialism.
Aristophanes believed that Athenian imperialism and its associated wars led to tyranny, luxury, litigation, and demagoguery.
The war devastated the countryside, forcing rural populations to evacuate to the city.
This uprooting led to the decay of the Old Order and traditional virtues, which Aristophanes saw as synonymous with Athenian civilization.
Strepsiades embodies this corruption, while Sokrates is viewed as a contributing symptom.
Aristophanes aimed to combat these symptoms, viewing the causes as irremediable.

The play The Clouds is often analyzed more for its depiction of Sokrates than for its satire of the Sophists.
It is debated whether Aristophanes' portrayal of Sokrates was malicious slander or simply comedic license.

Plato accused Aristophanes of moral irresponsibility, arguing that the distorted image of Sokrates in The Clouds contributed to the slanders that led to Sokrates' death.
The official indictment against Sokrates included charges of meddling with celestial and terrestrial matters, making the worse argument appear the better, and teaching others to do the same.
Plato's Sokrates refers to the depiction in Aristophanes' comedy, where he is portrayed as being carried around in a basket and claiming to walk on air, as absurd and untrue.
Plato's interpretation suggests a direct link between the slanders in The Clouds and the formal accusation against Sokrates in 399 B.C.

Plato's account is biased as he was a devoted disciple of Sokrates.
Plutarch suggests that Sokrates' reaction to the play was that he had been teased rather than slandered, comparing it to being "twitted in the theater as I would be at a drinking-party."
The portrayal of Sokrates in The Clouds is highly distorted, misrepresenting his views and actions.
Sokrates consistently attacked the Sophists, contradicting his depiction in the play.
While Sokrates admitted to dabbling in "scientific" research in his youth, this does not justify the extent of the distortion.

The argument is made that even if Aristophanes could not have foreseen the consequences of his "slanders," the act of slander itself is still wrong.
Aristophanes' personal opinion of Sokrates is considered irrelevant to the question of whether the portrayal was slanderous.
Even if Aristophanes was ignorant of Sokrates' true beliefs, his culpability remains, as ignorance is not an excuse for slander.
Aristophanes' deliberate distortion of Sokrates, rather than stemming from ignorance, suggests a specific strategy.

The distortions of Sokrates are consistent with Aristophanes' treatment of other figures, such as Euripides, whose words were often taken out of context and parodied.
The lack of outrage over the mockery of Euripides contrasts with the strong reactions to the portrayal of Sokrates.

The treatment of Sokrates in The Clouds is argued to be mild compared to Aristophanes' other works, such as the attack on Kleon in The Knights.
The satire avoids personal attacks on Sokrates' family life, focusing instead on his professional life as a perceived humbug and charlatan.
Aristophanes' "slanders" are partly dictated by the conventions of comedy, which traditionally involved invective and abuse.
This convention implies that those being satirized were expected to accept it in good humor, though this was not always the case.
The preposterous portrayal of Sokrates is seen as a deliberate strategy, fueled by malice and contempt, to create humor through extreme distortion.
The success of this humor lies in the disparity between the known truth and the degree of distortion achieved.

Aristophanes may have made Sokrates preposterous out of dislike and the belief that he was dangerous.
Aristophanes was dedicated to an Idea, and the distortion of Sokrates may have been in service of that Idea.
The argument is made that ideas can distort the world and those who serve them, a concept that Platonists should understand.

The translator acknowledges the use of texts by Cantarella and Coulon, as well as the influence of B. B. Rogers' notes and commentaries.
Thanks are given to the University of California at Riverside and the University of Texas for grants supporting the preparation of the manuscript.
Gratitude is expressed to Douglass Parker and the translator's wife for their help, encouragement, and criticism.