The Clouds of Aristophanes

The Clouds
Strepsiades, his son, and Socrates (from a 16th-century engraving)
Written by	Aristophanes
Chorus	Clouds (goddesses)
Characters	Strepsiades an elderly farmer Pheidippides his son Slave Two Students at The Thinkery Socrates the philosopher Superior Argument (Right) Inferior Argument (Wrong) First Creditor Second Creditor Chaerephon the philosopher Silent roles Witness brought by First Creditor Students at the Thinkery Slaves to Strepsiades The dramatis personæ in ancient comedy depends on interpretation of textual evidence. This list is based on Alan Sommerstein's translation.
Setting	1. House of Strepsiades 2. The Thinkery (Socrates' school)

Silent roles

The Clouds (Ancient Greek: Νεφέλαι Nephelai) is a Greek comedy play written by the celebrated playwright Aristophanes. A lampooning of intellectual fashions in classical Athens, it was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and was not as well received as the author had hoped, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was revised between 420 and 417 BC and was thereafter circulated in manuscript form.

No copy of the original production survives, and scholarly analysis indicates that the revised version is an incomplete form of Old Comedy. This incompleteness, however, is not obvious in translations and modern performances.

Retrospectively, The Clouds can be considered the world's first extant "comedy of ideas" and is considered by literary critics to be among the finest examples of the genre. The play also, however, remains notorious for its caricature of Socrates and is mentioned in Plato's Apology as a contributor to the philosopher's trial and execution.

The play begins with Strepsiades suddenly sitting up in bed while his son, Pheidippides, remains blissfully asleep in the bed next to him. Strepsiades complains to the audience that he is too worried about household debts to get any sleep – his wife (the pampered product of an aristocratic clan) has encouraged their son's expensive interest in horses. Strepsiades, having thought up a plan to get out of debt, wakes the youth gently and pleads with him to do something for him. Pheidippides at first agrees to do as he's asked then changes his mind when he learns that his father wants to enroll him in The Thinkery, a school for wastrels and bums that no self-respecting, athletic young man dares to be associated with. Strepsiades explains that students of The Thinkery learn how to turn inferior arguments into winning arguments and this is the only way he can beat their aggrieved creditors in court. Pheidippides however will not be persuaded and Strepsiades decides to enroll himself in The Thinkery in spite of his advanced age.