1 h 43 minAudiobook5 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.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy satire, sharp jokes about clever talkers, ancient Athens, or stories where a scheme to dodge bills starts to go very wrong.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A sleepless farmer drowning in horse debts
- A school where gnats and fleas are studied
- The Clouds replace the old gods
- An old man who cannot learn the tricks
- Two Arguments fight for the young man
- What the comedy says and how it is built
Who’s who
- StrepsiadesAn old farmer drowning in debt who hopes to learn how to win any lawsuit, whether he is right or wrong.
- PhidippidesHis son, who loves horses and chariots and has run up the debts, and who is forced to go to school.
- SocratesThe master of the thinkery, who hangs in a basket to study the sky and teaches the new way of arguing.
- The Chorus of CloudsGoddesses who drift in as singing mist, grant what clever men ask for, and speak to the audience directly.
- Just CauseThe Better Argument, who defends the strict old schooling of Athens and its modest, manly ways.
- Unjust CauseThe Worse Argument, quick and shameless, who claims to win any case and tempts the young with pleasure.
- PasiasA creditor owed twelve minae for a horse, who comes to Strepsiades to collect his money.
- AmyniasA second creditor, owed money for a little chariot, who also comes to Strepsiades to collect what is due.
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- Audiobook
- 1 h 43 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 5 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Die Wolken
by Aristophanes
A debtor hires a man in a basket to teach his son to win any argument, right or wrong.
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In short
What would you pay to win every argument, even when you are wrong? In The Clouds, the Athenian playwright Aristophanes sends a desperate farmer to the school of Socrates, where Socrates hangs in a basket and teaches the art of twisting words.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A sleepless farmer drowning in horse debts
The farmer cannot rest because of money. His son loves horses and chariots, and the bills for that love keep growing.
Strepsiades reads his tablets by lamplight. He owes twelve minae to Pasias for a thoroughbred and three more to Amynias for a little chariot. Even in his sleep the boy shouts about racing laps. The old man also blames his marriage, because his wife came from a proud city family and wanted her son to have a name with horse in it.
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What is The Clouds by Aristophanes about?
It tells of Strepsiades, an Athenian farmer buried in debts from his son's horses. He sends himself and then his son to the school of Socrates to learn how to win arguments and dodge his creditors.
Is Socrates in The Clouds the real Socrates?
Aristophanes draws Socrates as a comic figure, a mix of sky-watcher and teacher of tricks. This is a character in a comedy, not a factual account of his life.
Who are the Clouds in the play?
They are the chorus, a group of goddesses in the form of mist. Socrates worships them in place of Zeus, and they give clever men the gift of speech while also speaking to the audience.
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.
More by Aristophanes
All 4 booksMore like this
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