Clouds

s/t: Edited on the Basis of Kock`s EditionAristophanes was a Greek comic playwright. A satirist, he used the freedom of Old Comedy to ridicule public figures, institutions, even the gods. The Clouds (???????) 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.