Preface
Philosophy and theatre emerged from the same place at the same time:
Ancient Greece in the 6th centuryBC. They are both Greek words:‘phi-
losophy’ is the ‘love of wisdom’, ‘theatre’ is the ‘place for viewing’.
The first philosopher, Thales, died in approximately 546 BC. Little
more than a decade later,Thespis, thefirst playwright, won hisfirst prize,
having reputedly invented acting (as we now understand it) along the
way. Like many developing twins, philosophy and theatre had a compli-
cated relationship. The case of Socrates is instructive. The earliest source
we have for Socrates is his appearance as a character in Aristophanes’
comedy,The Clouds – indeed, that is the only source that dates from
during his lifetime.^1 It is not aflattering picture: Socrates is to be found
measuring the size of aflea’s foot or stealing his students’clothing; worse,
he convinces his students to abandon traditional Athenian religion and he
turns promising young Athenians into immoral tricksters. One source sug-
gests that Socrates saw Aristophanes’play and may have found the whole
thing amusing–in any case, he was hardly thefirst Athenianfigure to be
mocked by Aristophanes.^2 But, in a changing political climate, the pun-
ishment for Socrates’philosophising and its perceived influence went from
public ridicule to execution: Socrates was put to death for corrupting
the youth and for not believing in the gods of the city–the very things
for which he had been mocked in Aristophanes’play.
While Socrates was still alive, so one source claims, he had worked
together with Euripides to write tragedies; he had also convinced a young
tragedian called Plato to give up writing plays and become a philoso-
pher.^3 After Socrates died, Plato wrote a defence speech on Socrates’
behalf–theApology; it doesn’t mention Aristophanes directly, but it does
emphasise the false rumours and prejudices that made Socrates’conviction
all but certain. This is taken by many to be a reference to Socrates’
depiction inThe Clouds. Plato, in turn, would go on to unite Socrates and
Aristophanes as characters in hisSymposium–Socrates out-thinks and out-
drinks his comedian adversary; and inThe Republic, as we shall see, Plato
would attack contemporary Athenian theatre–but he would do so in