Telephus, of which only fragments survive – and often the objects of Aristophanes’ humor are not written
texts but contemporary intellectuals, politicians, and other public figures whose personal quirks were
such as to inspire comic satire. That was the case with Aristophanes’ The Clouds, originally performed in
423 BC, whose main character is the colorful Athenian philosopher Socrates. Socrates was a brilliant and
influential thinker, but he never committed his ideas to writing, so it is exceptionally difficult for us to
assess the accuracy of Aristophanes’ criticisms of him. In fact, The Clouds represents the earliest
evidence (if “evidence” is the right word) for this extraordinary individual and is the only account we
have that dates from Socrates’ lifetime.
That lifetime lasted from about 470 BC until Socrates was executed in an Athenian prison in 399 BC. He
was, then, a vigorous man in his late forties when his fellow citizens sat down to watch The Clouds. Only
a few months previously he had fought as a hoplite in one of the early battles of the Peloponnesian War,
his hoplite status indicating that he was at least moderately well-off financially. This accords with the
presentation of Socrates in The Clouds, for in his comedy Aristophanes depicts him as a man of leisure
who runs a sort of advanced research institute, with a number of dedicated disciples who have come to
study under the direction of the Master. The subjects studied include linguistics, geometry, and the
physical sciences, particularly astronomy and cosmology. When the audience first sees Socrates he is
suspended high above the stage, investigating celestial phenomena from a position like that of a god.
Socrates literally and figuratively looks down upon ordinary mortals, whose thoughts, he claims, are
weighed down by the earth’s moisture, while his own mind is clear and elevated.
SOCRATES: These Clouds here are the only divinities. Everything else is a crock.
STREPSIADES: But what about Olympian Zeus? Come on! Surely he’s a god?
SOCRATES: What Zeus? Don’t be an idiot. There’s no such thing.
STREPSIADES: Huh? Then who causes the rain? That’s what I need to know most of all.
SOCRATES: They do, of course. And I’ll prove it to you. Come on! When have you ever seen it
raining when there are no Clouds? If it were Zeus who caused the rain he ought to be able to do
it on his own, on a clear day when the Clouds are on vacation. (Aristophanes, The Clouds 365–
71)The institute, which is given the comic name “The Reflectory,” is presented almost as though it were a
religious institution, in which the disciples receive a kind of secret initiation into its mysteries. These
mysteries, however, have nothing to do with traditional Greek religion; in fact, Socrates and his fellow
intellectuals have entirely explained away the Olympian gods and have replaced them with natural
phenomena like air currents and the clouds that make up the play’s chorus. These natural phenomena are
the divinities that Socrates and his disciples now worship; Aristophanes represents Socrates explicitly as
denying the existence of Zeus and the other Olympian gods. Similarly, in Thesmophoriazusae, as we have
seen, one of the women accuses Euripides of making atheism fashionable, so that lack of respect for the
traditional gods seems to have been a standard charge directed at the purveyors of new ideas at this time.
This is potentially a very serious charge. Religion in ancient Greece is not exclusively a matter of
personal belief or individual observance, but is a communal concern. If the entire community does not
participate in the traditional ritual practices, the gods will feel slighted and may be justified in punishing
the entire community. But Aristophanes is producing comedies, not accusations in a court of law, and
there is no compelling reason to believe that Aristophanes sincerely regarded either Euripides or
Socrates as guilty of impiety.