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2.75/5
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Clouds
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s/t: Edited on the Basis of Kock`s Edition
Aristophanes was a Greek comic playwright. A satirist, he used the freedom of Old Comedy to ridicule public figures, institutions, even the gods. The Clouds (Νεφέλαι) lampoons intellectual fashions in classical Athens. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC & wasn't well received, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival. It was revised between 420-417. Thereafter it was circulated in manuscript form. No copy of the original production survives. Scholarly analysis indicates that the revised version is an incomplete form of Old Comedy. This incompleteness isn't obvious in modern translations & performances. The Clouds can be considered not only the first extant 'comedy of ideas' but also a successful example of that genre. The play gained notoriety for its caricature of Socrates ever since its mention in Plato's Apology as a factor contributing to his trial.
The plot is simple. A man belonging to the once sound & uncorrupted core of the people, a countryman, who's suffered material & moral ruin thru evils common to the times, tho not yet himself attacked by the poison of the new culture, is led by adverse circumstances to embrace it. He's been wealthy, & could have enjoyed his property in peace, but want of character have involved him in a series of misfortunes. External influence & the desire to raise himself above his rank have induced him to marry a noble, but mistrained girl of a proud family.
Aristophanes was a Greek comic playwright. A satirist, he used the freedom of Old Comedy to ridicule public figures, institutions, even the gods. The Clouds (Νεφέλαι) lampoons intellectual fashions in classical Athens. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC & wasn't well received, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival. It was revised between 420-417. Thereafter it was circulated in manuscript form. No copy of the original production survives. Scholarly analysis indicates that the revised version is an incomplete form of Old Comedy. This incompleteness isn't obvious in modern translations & performances. The Clouds can be considered not only the first extant 'comedy of ideas' but also a successful example of that genre. The play gained notoriety for its caricature of Socrates ever since its mention in Plato's Apology as a factor contributing to his trial.
The plot is simple. A man belonging to the once sound & uncorrupted core of the people, a countryman, who's suffered material & moral ruin thru evils common to the times, tho not yet himself attacked by the poison of the new culture, is led by adverse circumstances to embrace it. He's been wealthy, & could have enjoyed his property in peace, but want of character have involved him in a series of misfortunes. External influence & the desire to raise himself above his rank have induced him to marry a noble, but mistrained girl of a proud family.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1,-0423
This edition
- Format
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260 pages, Hardcover
- Published
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January 1, 1885 by Ginn \u0026 Co. (Boston)
- ISBN
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- ASIN
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B0DLT84WY6
- Language
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English
Characters More characters
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Strepsiades
Strepsiades is the anti-hero of Aristophaness play. He is an older Athenian citizen and a farmer.more...
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Socrates (philosopher)
A classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the play...
About the author
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Aristophanes (Greek: Αριστοφάνης; c. 446 – c. 386 BC) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.
Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates, although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher.
Aristophanes' second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court, but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through that play's Chorus, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."
Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates, although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher.
Aristophanes' second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court, but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through that play's Chorus, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."
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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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3.5
w starozytnej grecji tez lubili zarty o sraniu
w starozytnej grecji tez lubili zarty o sraniu
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Mal wieder in einer Holzberg-Übersetzung. Höchst Amüsant.
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This was a very pleasant surprise. Not only did this deliver on being a very amusing read, but it gave me real insight into the political and philosophical climate of Classical Greece in a way that I didn't expect. It was also a surprise seeing how the chorus behaved in Aristophanes's comedy versus all of the ancient tragedies I've read. It's so interesting that the version we have now is the revised and never performed version, especially as so much of what the chorus does is speak to the audience about the competition the play is being performed in (which of course didn't happen). There were a few instances where it seemed certain elements were counterintuitive in the dialogue, perhaps that is meant to add to the satire, or perhaps it is simply the unfinished nature of the piece. Either way, it was highly enjoyable, and The Frogs has definitely moved up my tbr list.
Never have I hated the socratic method more <3
Never have I hated the socratic method more <3
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I find it really funny how people think that "in the old days" everything was so much better and they were so much mature, but this play proves them so wrong!
I love the way Aristophanes got so offended by the third place that he re-wrote this play and made fun of how he did not win because of his dirty jokes. This comedy proves that even in the ancient Greece the humour were the same as now, and the presence of irony and mocking were ever so funny!
I love the way Aristophanes got so offended by the third place that he re-wrote this play and made fun of how he did not win because of his dirty jokes. This comedy proves that even in the ancient Greece the humour were the same as now, and the presence of irony and mocking were ever so funny!
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A funny play on morality and sophistry. A lot more fart jokes than I would have expected from this time period
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نمایشنامهی ۲۵۰۰ سالهای که سقراط کرکترِ مورد بحثشه.
و حتی سقراط در دفاعیهی خودش از این نمایشنامه نام میبره...جالبه که تا به حال از استادهامون چیزی از این یکی نشنیده بودم اما جالب بود و از ریویوهاتون یاد گرفتم که آریستوفان سقراط رو یک سوفیست-کسی که از عقل و خردورزی سو استفاده میکنه تا ناحق رو حق نشون بده و قواعد جامعه رو بهم بریزه-جلوه داده و تا حدودی میتونستم منظور و هدفشو بفهمم اما حداقل نباید شخصیت مستقیمِ سقراط رو مینوشت، ولی خب ظاهرا دلش دیس قوی میخواسته بزرگوار.
علاقهمندان تاریخ یونان و سقراط و فلسفه و نمایش حتما بخوننش.
و حتی سقراط در دفاعیهی خودش از این نمایشنامه نام میبره...جالبه که تا به حال از استادهامون چیزی از این یکی نشنیده بودم اما جالب بود و از ریویوهاتون یاد گرفتم که آریستوفان سقراط رو یک سوفیست-کسی که از عقل و خردورزی سو استفاده میکنه تا ناحق رو حق نشون بده و قواعد جامعه رو بهم بریزه-جلوه داده و تا حدودی میتونستم منظور و هدفشو بفهمم اما حداقل نباید شخصیت مستقیمِ سقراط رو مینوشت، ولی خب ظاهرا دلش دیس قوی میخواسته بزرگوار.
علاقهمندان تاریخ یونان و سقراط و فلسفه و نمایش حتما بخوننش.
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This was excellent and so much fun.
It's a great comedy, but it's even better social-commentary on 5th-century BC Athens.
I had not expected Aristophanes to implicitly defend old morality and conventional religion in this way, but watching Socrates and Wrong Argument work together to corrupt Pheidippides and turn him against his own father, Strepsiades, in a reversal of Strepsiades' desires to have his own son learn rhetoric so he can rid himself of his debtors is great. (It's funny that Strepsiades had wanted to be the rhetoric student at first, but he was too dim-witted!) It really is funny to watch 5th-century BC intellectuals get parodied in this way (Chaerephon is also present in the Thinkery), but as I've said, the social-commentary is even better. It was an interesting creative decision to make the chorus be these abstract, weird Clouds -- it's not clear what they really are. They also don't have much of a role; the chorus here is so different from Euripides, where the chorus often butts in and has huge, long sections (and are groups of easily identifiable *humans* -- though, if I remember correctly, they are satyrs in the *Cyclops*). By the same token, having Wrong Argument and Right Argument be people with such abstract names is pretty interesting too.
All in all, there's a lot to love here, and I love Aristophanes' decision to end the play with Strepsiades burning down the Thinkery.
It's a great comedy, but it's even better social-commentary on 5th-century BC Athens.
I had not expected Aristophanes to implicitly defend old morality and conventional religion in this way, but watching Socrates and Wrong Argument work together to corrupt Pheidippides and turn him against his own father, Strepsiades, in a reversal of Strepsiades' desires to have his own son learn rhetoric so he can rid himself of his debtors is great. (It's funny that Strepsiades had wanted to be the rhetoric student at first, but he was too dim-witted!) It really is funny to watch 5th-century BC intellectuals get parodied in this way (Chaerephon is also present in the Thinkery), but as I've said, the social-commentary is even better. It was an interesting creative decision to make the chorus be these abstract, weird Clouds -- it's not clear what they really are. They also don't have much of a role; the chorus here is so different from Euripides, where the chorus often butts in and has huge, long sections (and are groups of easily identifiable *humans* -- though, if I remember correctly, they are satyrs in the *Cyclops*). By the same token, having Wrong Argument and Right Argument be people with such abstract names is pretty interesting too.
All in all, there's a lot to love here, and I love Aristophanes' decision to end the play with Strepsiades burning down the Thinkery.
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