Quotes from work
The Clouds

The Clouds
Aristophanés Original title Νεφέλαι

The Clouds is a Greek comedy play written by the 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.


Aristophanés photo

“Unjust Discourse: To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is a talent worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.”

tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 1, p. 361 http://books.google.com/books?id=9vpxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22To+invoke+solely+the+weaker+arguments+and+yet+triumph+is+a+talent+worth+more+than+a+hundred+thousand+drachmae%22
Clouds, line 1041-1042
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés photo

“Unjust Cause: This art is worth more than ten thousand staters, that one should choose the worse cause, and nevertheless be victorious.”

tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+1041
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés photo

“Old age is second childhood.”

Clouds, line 1417
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés photo

“Just Discourse: Do not bandy words with your father, nor treat him as a dotard, nor reproach the old man, who has cherished you, with his age.”

tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 1, p. 359 http://books.google.com/books?id=9vpxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Do+not+bandy+words+with+your+father%2C+nor+treat+him+as+a+dotard%2C+nor+reproach+the+old+man%2C+who+has+cherished+you%2C+with+his+age%22
Clouds, line 998-999
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés photo

“Strepsiades: Whirl is King, having driven out Zeus.”

tr. in Lippmann 1929, p. 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=-E4WFG-G30sC&pg=PA1 and 4 http://books.google.com/books?id=-E4WFG-G30sC&pg=PA4
Clouds, line 828
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés photo

“Strepsiades: But come, by the Earth, is not Zeus, the Olympian, a god?
Socrates: What Zeus? Do not trifle. There is no Zeus.”

tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+366
Clouds, line 366-367 (our emphasis on 367)
The Greek-mythology equivalent of "There is no God."
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés photo

“Just Cause: [Learn] not to contradict your father in anything; nor by calling him Iapetus, to reproach him with the ills of age, by which you were reared in your infancy.”

tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+998
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés photo

“Strepsiades: ‘Tis the Whirlwind, that has driven out Zeus and is King now.”

tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 1, p. 350 http://books.google.com/books?id=9vpxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Tis+the+Whirlwind%2C+that+has+driven+out+Jupiter+and+is+King+now%22
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés photo

“Strepsiades: Vortex reigns, having expelled Zeus.”

tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+828
Clouds (423 BC)

Aristophanés photo

“Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.”

William Arrowsmith (tr.) after Aristophanes, in Clouds, line 914 (our emphasis, citing 909-914)
This apocryphal line is found quoted only from the Arrowsmith translation.
Misattributed
Context: [909] Philosophy: Why, you Precocious Pederast! You Palpable Pervert!
[910] Sophistry: Pelt me with roses!
[910] Philosophy: You Toadstool! O Cesspool!
[911] Sophistry: Wreath my hairs with lilies!
[911] Philosophy: Why, you Parricide!
[912] Sophistry: Shower me with gold! Look, don't you see I welcome your abuse?
[913] Philosophy: Welcome it, monster? In my day we would have cringed with shame.
[914] Sophistry: Whereas now we're flattered. Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.
(heavily rewritten and embellished tr. Arrowsmith 1962, p. 70 http://books.google.com/books?id=UNlxAAAAIAAJ&q;=%22Times+change.+The+vices+of+your+age+are+stylish+today%22)

Similar authors

Aristophanés photo
Aristophanés 56
Athenian playwright of Old Comedy -448–-386 BC
Menander photo
Menander 18
Athenian playwright of New Comedy
Plautus photo
Plautus 54
Roman comic playwright of the Old Latin period
Solón photo
Solón 17
Athenian legislator
Euripidés photo
Euripidés 116
ancient Athenian playwright
Aeschylus photo
Aeschylus 119
ancient Athenian playwright
Terence photo
Terence 46
Roman comic playwright
Socrates photo
Socrates 168
classical Greek Athenian philosopher
Diogenes of Sinope photo
Diogenes of Sinope 33
ancient Greek philosopher, one of the founders of the Cynic…
Xenophon photo
Xenophon 21
ancient Greek historian and philosopher