Primary sourceBook423 BC, revised c. 420-417 BC

The Clouds

Aristophanes · 423 BC, revised c. 420-417 BC

A comedy by Aristophanes that mocks Socrates as a sophist running a school called 'The Thinkery', the only portrait of him written in his lifetime.

The only surviving portrayal of Socrates made during his own lifetime, mocking him as a sophist and natural philosopher.

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Black and white woodcut. An old bearded man sits in a basket hanging from ropes at right. Beside a tree at left, a robed figure grips a man seated on a horse-like creature. Ground and sky are hatched with lines. — Aristophanes, The Clouds, 423 BC (revised c. 420-417 BC). Woodcut illustration of a scene from the play.

About this source

What it is

The Clouds is a comic play by Aristophanes, first performed in 423 BC and later revised. It survives only in its revised form and was circulated afterward in manuscript.

Why it matters

The play caricatures Socrates as head of a school called 'The Thinkery', mocking him with absurd scientific experiments and sophistic arguments. It is the only substantial depiction of Socrates made while he was still alive, and Socrates himself blames it in Plato's Apology for shaping a false public image of him that contributed to his trial. It shows how controversial his reputation as a thinker already was among ordinary Athenians.

Look closer

Why would a comic playwright choose to mock a real living philosopher?
How might this caricature differ from how Socrates' own students described him?
What does the play's popularity suggest about public attitudes toward philosophers in Athens?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Socrates on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.