1 h 43 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if you could talk your way out of debt—and make the worse case win?
Strepsiades cannot sleep. His son Pheidippides loves horses and racing, and the old farmer is drowning in the resulting debts. At the Thinkery, where Socrates teaches clever speech, Strepsiades hopes to learn a way to cheat his creditors. But his lessons go badly: asked to think, he can only think of money.
In The Clouds, Aristophanes turns anxiety about money and education into a stage comedy of songs, insults and rude humor. Socrates appears as an airy comic sage, not a fair portrait of the philosopher. A singing chorus of goddesses and a quarrel between the Stronger and Weaker Arguments sharpen the question: what happens when speech breaks loose from truth?
What you’ll discover
- A sleepless debtor Meet a worried farmer who sees clever words as an escape from what he owes.
- Inside the Thinkery Enter a school of sky-gazing thinkers, where Strepsiades struggles to keep his mind off debt.
- A chorus of Clouds Hear shape-changing goddesses sing in grand verse and promise the farmer fame and wealth.
- Two Arguments clash Watch stern discipline confront smooth persuasion in a quarrel over what a young man should learn.
- Laughter with a sting Enjoy the farce while asking whether skill in argument deserves your trust.
Is it for you?
This is for anyone who likes sharp satire, ancient Athens, or the old question of whether clever speech can be trusted. It suits readers new to Greek drama. If you want realism or a fair portrait of Socrates, you may find it less suited.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Debt keeps an old farmer awake
- A school where men study the sky
- The Clouds sing for idle thinkers
- The pupil who cannot learn
- Two Arguments fight for the boy
- What the play says about clever words
Who’s who
- StrepsiadesAn old farmer from the country who is drowning in debt and hopes to buy a skill that will let him cheat his creditors.
- PheidippidesHis young son, who loves horses and racing, scorns the thinkers, and is the cause of the family's debts.
- SocratesThe head of the Thinkery, shown as an airy, comic sage who studies the heavens and teaches clever speech.
- The CloudsThe chorus of goddesses who guide thinkers, change shape at will, and promise Strepsiades fame and wealth.
- The Stronger ArgumentA stern champion of old Athens who praises discipline, modesty and respect for elders, and who competes for the young man.
- The Weaker ArgumentA smooth, quick talker who defends pleasure and the new learning, and who boasts he can make the worse case win.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Die Wolken
by Aristophanes
A farmer seeks lessons in argument to escape his debts.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
Debt keeps an old farmer awake
The play opens at night in the house of Strepsiades. He lies awake, tossing and groaning, while his young son Pheidippides sleeps beside him. The cause of his trouble is money. Pheidippides loves horses and chariot racing, and the bills for his hobby have piled up until the creditors are ready to sue.
Strepsiades explains how it happened. He is a countryman, and he married a woman from a fine city family. She had grand tastes, and she named the boy with a word that means horse. She dreamed of a son who would ride in a chariot in splendid robes. Strepsiades dreamed of a son who would tend goats. The marriage ended with the wife's dream winning, and the farmer paying.
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The author
Aristophanes
444 BC–384 BC · Ancient Greek comic playwright
Aristophanes was the great comic playwright of classical Athens, whose satires spared neither politicians nor philosophers. Lysistrata — in which the women of Greece go on strike to end a war — is among his most performed plays today.
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What is The Clouds by Aristophanes about?
It is a comedy about an old Athenian farmer in debt who joins the school of Socrates to learn how to win arguments, and then sends his son there. It mocks the new teaching of persuasion.
Is the Socrates in The Clouds the real Socrates?
Not exactly. Aristophanes makes him a comic figure who studies the sky and sells lessons in speech. The real Socrates took no fees, and Plato says the play helped spread a false image of him.
When was The Clouds written?
It was first staged in 423 BC at an Athenian festival and did not win a prize. Aristophanes later revised it, and the revised text is the one that has come down to us.
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