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.
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 <br class="br">Clouds, line 1041-1042 <br class="br">Clouds (423 BC)
tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+1041 <br class="br">Clouds (423 BC)
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 <br class="br">Clouds, line 998-999 <br class="br">Clouds (423 BC)
“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 <br class="br">Clouds, line 828 <br class="br">Clouds (423 BC)
tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+366 <br class="br">Clouds, line 366-367 (our emphasis on 367) <br class="br">The Greek-mythology equivalent of "There is no God." <br class="br">Clouds (423 BC)
tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+998 <br class="br">Clouds (423 BC)
“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 <br class="br">Clouds (423 BC)
“Strepsiades: Vortex reigns, having expelled Zeus.”
tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Cl.+828 <br class="br">Clouds (423 BC)
“Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.”
William Arrowsmith (tr.) after Aristophanes, in Clouds, line 914 (our emphasis, citing 909-914)<br>This apocryphal line is found quoted only from the Arrowsmith translation. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Context: [909] Philosophy: Why, you Precocious Pederast! You Palpable Pervert!<br>[910] Sophistry: Pelt me with roses!<br>[910] Philosophy: You Toadstool! O Cesspool!<br>[911] Sophistry: Wreath my hairs with lilies!<br>[911] Philosophy: Why, you Parricide!<br>[912] Sophistry: Shower me with gold! Look, don't you see I welcome your abuse?<br>[913] Philosophy: Welcome it, monster? In my day we would have cringed with shame.<br>[914] Sophistry: Whereas now we're flattered. Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.<br>(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)
