The final days of Socrates are rather dramatic. He was accused of religious offenses and corrupting the youth. At his trial, he intelligently defended himself, but was condemned to death. His friends were ready to help him escape, but he decided to submit to Athenian law, and drank the hemlock.
Plato gives us the contents of the speech in which Socrates defended himself. According to Plato’s account, Socrates believed that his public image had suffered as a result of the unfair treatment that he had received in the “Clouds” of Aristophanes.
The testimony of Socrates not only exposes the unfairness of the satire, but also pays tribute to its effectiveness. The very fact that Socrates chose to mention it in his defense shows how influential the works or Aristophanes were.
Since I do not have the original Greek of Aristophanes at my disposal, the following summary is based on an English translation by Moses Hadas.
Even without consulting the Greek text, it is obvious that the translator occasionally deviates from the original in order to make the work more meaningful to modern readers. I shall point out a couple instances of this when we come to them.
As the play opens, Strepsiades is complaining about his son Pheidippides. The son has ruined the father financially. Pheidippides’ interest in horses has led to extravagant expenditures. As a result, Strepsiades has many creditors, and he is at a loss as to how he can pay his debts.
He decides to take refuge in the teachings of the sophists, who can prove that the false is true by an adroit use of words. He wants to send Pheidippides to a Think-shop in which Socrates and Chaerephron offer instructions in the art of sophistry. There his son will learn how to speak unjustly and win. With such knowledge, Pheidippides will be able to frustrate the creditors of Strepsiades when they attempt to collect their money.
The son refuses to go to the Think-shop. So Strepsiades decides that he himself will become a student of Socrates.
In the course of the conversation, Strepsiades mentions that it costs money to study at the Think-shop. In reality, the sophists usually charged fees for instruction, but Socrates never did.
As he approaches the place of study, Strepsiades finds students with their eyes riveted to the ground. A student explains that they are examining sub-Tartarean darkness. Strepsiades finds Socrates up in the air in a basket. The philosopher feels that he can understand things better when he is aloft. There he can mingle his intellect with its kindred air. While on the ground, the earth draws intellect’s sap to itself.
To initiate his new student, Socrates sets Strepsiades on a sacred pallet, puts a chaplet on his head, and pours powdery meal over him. Socrates tells him that he will become a powdery prattler.
Socrates then summons the Clouds. The Clouds happen to be the chorus in this drama. They come when Socrates calls, giving a poetic description of themselves. Socrates explains that the Clouds are potent deities for the shiftless, “who supply acumen and casuistry, verbal sleights, circumlocutions, quick repartee and knockout arguments.” They are the “nursing mothers of sophists.”
Strepsiades asks why the Clouds look like women. Socrates replies that Clouds can assume any shape that they wish.
The Clouds greet Strepsiades, who wants to learn the science of subtle speech. They also greet Socrates, the priest of cobweb folly. Socrates tells Strepsiades that these Clouds are the only deities that exist. The rest are nonsense. There is no such thing as Zeus. Strepsiades argues with Socrates, but eventually he is convinced.
The Clouds ask Strepsiades what they can do for him. He wants “to outdistance all Greek chatterers by a hundred furlongs,” He wants to “twist lawsuits and slip from creditors’ clutches.” In response, the Clouds make fantastic promises.
Socrates induces Strepsiades to take off his coat and enter the Think-shop, where they are not visible to the audience. In the meantime, the chorus speaks at length.
Socrates reappears and complains about the stupidity of his student. He tells Strepsiades to bring out his cot.
The ensuing instruction of Socrates is ludicrous. The humorous quibbles depend on the gender of Greek words. For example, Socrates asks Strepsiades to give him some male names. Strepsiades includes Amynias in his list. Socrates claims that this is not a male name and calls Strepsiades a fool. To prove it, he asks Strepsiades how he would greet Amynias if he met him on the street. Strepsiades replies: “Hi there, Amynia.” Socrates asserts that his greeting makes the name feminine.
This, of course, is an example of using specious words to make a wrong statement appear right. In Greek, the name “Amynias” becomes “Amynia” when you address him. Many feminine Greek nouns end in the letter “a,” so by this twisted logic you can make it appear as if Amynias is a feminine noun.
Socrates then commands Strepsiades to lie down on the cot. The bedbugs and other vermin are so bad that they eat his shoes. Strepsiades complains continually.
Strepsiades is supposed to ponder something. He finally gets an idea. If he hired a Thessalian witch, he could pull the moon down to earth and shut it up in a casket. With the moon gone, he would never have to pay interest on his debts, because bills fall due on the new moon.
Socrates then asks Strepsiades to assume that he lost five talents in a lawsuit. How would he avoid paying it? After thinking a while, Strepsiades said that he would buy a crystal with which he could start a fire with the help of the sun. When the clerk was writing the sentence, he would focus the sun on it and melt the words away.
Socrates then asks Strepsiades how he would outwit his opponents in a case that he was bound to lose. Strepsiades said that he would hang himself before the case came up, because no one could try him if he were dead.
This disgusted Socrates. He told Strepsiades that he would not teach him any more. The chorus advised Strepsiades to let Socrates teach his son. While Strepsiades goes home to fetch his son, the chorus of Clouds comments on their power to dupe people into doing their bidding.
Pheidippides agrees to sit at the feet of Socrates, but he warns his father that he will regret it later.
Socrates has to leave. For the instruction of Pheidippides, two characters named Right Logic and Wrong Logic appear on the scene. Right Logic commends traditional education as it used to be. Wrong Logic poses various objections and tells Right Logic: “You belong to the Middle Ages.” In the end, Right Logic acknowledges that he has been defeated.
Note how the translator uses an anachronism to make the text meaningful to modern readers. The Middle Ages occurred long after Aristophanes had died.
Right Logic and Wrong Logic leave. Socrates returns and starts teaching Pheidippides. Socrates assures Strepsiades that his son will become an accomplished sophist.
While the instruction is going on, the Cloud chorus addresses the audience. As Strepsiades leaves, the Clouds wager that he will eventually regret his decision to expose his son to sophistry. The Clouds then comment on their power. If someone affronts their misty divinity, they will avenge themselves by striking their fields with volleys of hail. They will spoil his wedding day with showers.
The teaching of Socrates has been successful. He assures Strepsiades that Pheidippides has the ability to evade any lawsuit. He tells the father to take his son and go.
Various creditors come, but Strepsiades uses the instruction of Socrates to befuddle them. He manages to drive them all off.
The ingenuity of the translator is again apparent in this section. Addressing a creditor named Pasias, Strepsiades contemptuously calls him Shylock. Obviously, Aristophanes never read “The Merchant of Venice” by Shakespeare.
At this point, the chorus predicts that Strepsiades will soon be caught in his own net. He wanted to weave deceits, and made his son an expert in equivocation. Strepsiades will soon wish that his son were a deaf-mute.
In the next scene, Pheidippides is beating his father mercilessly. When Strepsiades reproves his son for striking his own father, Pheidippides claims that he can prove that his action was justified.
The chorus asks Strepsiades to explain how the quarrel arose. In reply, Strepsiades explains that the two of them were feasting. Strepsiades wanted his son to sing a tune of Simonides with lyre accompaniment. Pheidippides did not like the idea. He did not want to use his mouth for singing when he could use it to eat the victuals on the table. Strepsiades then asked to hear Aeschylus, but Pheidippides started reciting some vile tale of Euripides. Strepsiades did not like the Euripides selection and lost his temper. Pheidippides did not like it that his father insulted Euripides. After they exchanged angry words, Pheidippides started beating his father. (Note that Aristophanes disapproved of the works of Euripides, whom he satirizes at length in “Frogs.”)
Pheidippides then starts some ingenious quibbling that makes it seem right for a son to beat his father. Strepsiades beat Pheidippides when he was a boy out of concern for him. Since therefore beating is an act of love, Pheidippides claims that he would be remiss if he failed to beat to beat his father. Moreover, if Strepsiades claims that only children should be beaten, fathers become childish in their senile old age, and therefore it is just to beat them.
Strepsiades poses several objections, but Pheidippides adroitly answers them. In the end, Strepsiades admits that his son acted justly.
Pheidippides then tells his father that he is going to beat his mother also. Since his father admits that it is just for a son to beat his father, it follows that it is also just for a son to beat his mother.
Strepsiades is disgusted. He blames the Clouds for egging him on when he desired to embrace the deceptive logic of Socrates. The Clouds reply: “That’s what we always do when we see a man’s in love with iniquity; we pitch him into a mess and he learns to fear the gods.” Strepsiades acknowledges that he was wrong in repudiating his debts.
After vainly trying to reclaim his son from the grip of sophistry, he sets the Think-shop on fire while Socrates, Chaerephron, and various disciples are within.
Aristophanes could not have chosen a more effective way of satirizing the teachings of the sophists than using their methods to justify the beating of a father. His audience would know that there is no justification for beating a father. By showing that sophists could find a way to justify this act, the falsity of the logic of the sophists would become apparent to all.
Conservative Christians, who respect parental authority, would feel the full force of the satire of Aristophanes. However, I wonder whether people of humanistic persuasion would see the point, since they are not too enthusiastic about authority of any kind. Some of the arguments that Pheidippides uses to justify his act closely resemble humanistic fallacies.
While the sophists did use the methods satirized by Aristophanes, I have never seen such argumentation in the Socratic dialogues composed by Plato. Admittedly, I have not read all of these dialogues; but from what I have read, I would concur in the general consensus that Socrates was not a sophist.
Incidentally, Plato’s account of the defense of Socrates at his trial is interesting reading. I imagine that it is available in English and other language. I used to have the original Greek, but managed to lose it in my peregrinations.
Reference:
“The Complete Plays of Aristophanes”; Moses Hadas, editor
