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Title: Aristophanes' Clouds Translated With Notes and Introduction by Jeffery Henderson, Jeffrey Henderson ISBN: 0-941051-24-2 Publisher: Focus Publishing / R. Pullins & Co Pub. Date: 01 February, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Aristophanes attacks Socrates the sophist as a Sophist
Comment: The legend is that when Aristophanes' comedy "The Clouds" was first performed in Athens in 423 B.C., his target, Socrates, stood throughout the performance so that everyone in the audience was aware that he was there and hearing what was said of him. The portrait of Socrates clearly satirical and most critics consider it to be inaccurate. But Aristophanes is making fun of Athens' renowned "Think-tank" the "Phrontisterion," the school where the rich young men of Athens were taught the fine art of rhetoric. Instead of anything lofty the comic poet suggests the primary purpose of such an education is to be clever and out-reason greedy creditors. This is an especially good translation of the play, which includes insightful notes and essays on both Old Comedy and the Theater of Dionysus that helps readers understand the conventions of staged comedy at the time of Aristophanes.
In this comedy Socrates is consulted by an old rogue, Strepsiades (sometimes translated as "Twisterson"), who is upset with the mountain of debts his playboy son Phidippides, who loves fast horses and fast living. Phidippides agrees to go to Socrates' school of logic where he can learn to make a wrong argument sound right. After graduation is able to use the system of "unjust logic" to outwit his father and kick him out of the family home. The Chorus of Clouds comments on the proceedings and in the end the Phrontisterion is burned to the ground by Strepsiades.
The flaw of the play is Aristophanes is trying to satirize the Sophists, who were popularizing a new philosophy that denied the possibility of ever reaching objective truth, he picked the wrong target. The Sophists were mostly teachers who were not native to Athens, such as Isocartes and Gorgias. "Sophist" basically meant teacher, so while Socrates was a "sophist" he was not a "Sophist." Twenty-four years later, when Socrates was condemned to death for "corrupting the youth of Athens," the only accuser he said he could name was a certain "comic poet." For contemporary audiences who are untutored in the traditions of classical Greek philosophy it is easy to see Socrates as the prototype for the absent-minded professor, but historically that is, of course, far from the truth. Ironically, even today, Socrates is still one of the few "sophists" that a contemporary audience would recognize by name if not by reputation.
The version of "The Clouds" that has passed down to us is not the original version, which was defeated by Cratinus' "Wine Flask" at a comedy competition during the Great Dionysia celebrations. We know this is a revised version because the Chorus complains about Aristophanes finishing third in that competition. However, critics assume it is essentially the same play, albeit a more polished version. Once you forgive Aristophanes for his unfair characterization of Socrates, "The Clouds" is a great comedy employing all of his standard tricks of the trade from fantasy and ribaldry to funny songs and obscene words.
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Title: Euripides IV: Four Tragedies: Rhesus, the Suppliant Women, Orestes and Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides, David Grene, Richmond Lattimore, Frank Jones ISBN: 0226307832 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: June, 1968 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: The Trial and Death of Socrates (3rd Edition) by Plato, G. M. A. Grube, John M. Cooper ISBN: 0872205541 Publisher: Hackett Publishing Co. Pub. Date: June, 2001 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Phaedrus by Plato, Alexander Nehamas, Paul Woodruff ISBN: 0872202208 Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Pub. Date: March, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Euripides I: The Complete Greek Tragedies by Euripides, David Grene, Richmond Lattimore ISBN: 0226307808 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: January, 1983 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: Philoctetes by Carl Phillips, Diskin Clay, E. A. Sophocles ISBN: 0195136578 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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