Source edition
Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This comedy depicts a father struggling with enormous debts caused by his son's expensive horse hobby, plotting to escape them through the art of sophistry. Set in Athens, the rustic father Strepsiades visits the "Thinkery" (Phrontisterion) run by the philosopher Socrates to learn the rhetorical skills needed to evade his creditors. Although Strepsiades initially enrolls himself, he is baffled by strange scientific investigations and the teachings of the new deities, the "Clouds," and is ultimately expelled due to his poor memory. Instead, he persuades his son Pheidippides to enter the school and have him trained under the "Worse Argument" (Logos). At first, the father rejoices as his son's newly acquired sophistry successfully drives away the creditors, but soon he is beaten by his own son, who uses the same rhetoric to justify assaulting both his father and mother. Recognizing his grave mistake in disregarding traditional beliefs, the desperate Strepsiades retaliates by burning down Socrates' "Thinkery" in a destructive climax.