Aristophanes' The Clouds

Aristophanes' The Clouds was initially not received well as it came last in the traditional competition when plays were performed in ancient times and was later revised. Today, there is no copy of the original script that survives and recent scholarly analysis demonstrates that the revised version is incomplete, but this incomplete state is not obvious in translations or modern performances.

This article considers the historical background of The Clouds:

• The Clouds symbolise a departure from some of the main themes of Aristophanes' early plays which are typically Athenian politics, the Peloponnesian War and the desire for peace with Sparta.

• The Clouds came at a time when Athens was looking for a period of peace.

• Cleon was a populist leader who was pro-war, and subsequently became the target in all of Aristophanes' early plays. Cleon had attempted to prosecute Aristophanes for slander in 426 which seemed to fuel the rivalry and tension.

• In The Clouds Aristophanes focuses on broader issues, including old vs new.

• One of the plays that defeated The Clouds was Connus by Ameipsias which lampooned Socrates. Aelian reports a famous story, where Socrates rose from his seat during the performance of The Clouds and stood silently where people who traveled to watch the plays whispered 'Who is Socrates?'.

• Aristophanes' plays were typically unsuccessful shaping public attitudes of the time on important questions. This can be seen by the repetitive ineffectual opposition to the Peloponnesian War, which is demonstrated in the Aristophanes' Lysistrata and to people such as Cleon.

• The play adapts various elements of Old Comedy in a variety of unique ways:

- Parados: The Chorus' arrival is unusual as they sing whilst offstage before they eventually appear. Some scholars suggest that the Chorus might not have been audible to the audience which could have contributed to the original play's failure.

- Parabasis: The parabasis is composed in eupolidean tetrameter as opposed to the conventional and typical anapestic tetrameter. This is interesting because Aristophanes does not use eupolideans in any of his other plays.

- Episodes: Conventionally, any informal dialogue between characters is usually in iambic trimeter. However, one of the two agons is composed in short lines of anapestic rhythm.