Content uploaded by Christos Kechagias
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Christos Kechagias on Dec 20, 2019
Content may be subject to copyright.
Ideias e Críticas
Burning Socrates’ School down
with Aristophanes: Learning
and teaching under Clouds
Christos-Thomas Kechagias
PhD., M.A., Teaching Philosophy of Education;
Georgia Papaioannou
Alexandros-Stamatios Antoniou
513
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
Abstract
In Clouds (Nubes) of Aristophanes, Socrates appears as a sophist school owner,
the Phrontisterion (‘thinkery’), in which he hosts students of all ages, in or-
sophistic techniques. In Clouds opposed ideas can be found like the aims of
historical Socrates’ educational method, combined with Sophists’ modern
educational contrasts and disagreements (Just Cause Vs Unjust Cause) and
highlights the chasm between the empty theoretical discourse of young in-
tellectuals and the real educational practical needs (learning skills, practical
adjustment etc.). In this comedy, Aristophanes deals with many educational
he appears with the Socratic method of learning and teaching (use of initia-
-
tional system of his time?
Keywords: Aristophanes, Philosophy of Education, Socrates, Dramaturgy,
Theory of Education, teaching terminology, Comedy.
514
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
Resumo
Em As Nuvens
estabelecimento de ensino, o Frontistério ( Pensatório), onde ele recebe estudantes de
-
encontradas como as metas do método educacional do Sócrates histórico combinadas
-
-
-
dia, Aristófanes lida com diversos temas educacionais, os quais são encontrados em
-
nesse Sócrates apresentado por Aristófanes e qual o objetivo da revisão que Aristófanes
515
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
1) Comedy as eld of research – Plot of Clouds
In Clouds, which was performed in 423 B.C., Aristophanes, amongst others,
deals with the issue of teaching and learning, combining elements of Socratic
Philosophy with ones of the art of Sophists, resonant during Aristophanes’
teaching physics, language, rhetoric, philosophy, etc., neither at Agora nor at
-
rence place which it is called “Thinkery” (the original greek term is ‘Phrontisterion’).
This is the summarized plot of Clouds, in which the aristophanic learning
and teaching techniques of Socrates are interpolated:
Strepsiades is not capable of paying the debts created by his pro-
digal son, Phidippides, who has spent all of his paternal fortune in horse bre-
eding, which was an aristocratic habit. Being desperate, he decides to go and
be an apprentice at (sophistic) school of Socrates, the “Thinkery”. Thus, with
and the judges. In this way, he persuades his son to join the “Thinkery” ins-
tead of him, because he is uneducated. The result of that, though, is comple-
-
tead of an auspicious ending. Strepsiades is not only a farmer (as in other
Aristophanes’ works such as Dikaiopolis [in The Acharnians], Trygaeus [in
Peace], Chremylus [in Plutus]), but also rough, raw and boorish. Thus, by
trying to join Socrates, the most important philosopher of the ancient world,
predispose us about the following gags.
516
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
If someone, though, secludes the comedy issue in Clouds, is it possible for
-
tem or the principal ideas of a historic society? Rumor has it that Dionysius,
the tyrant of Syracuse, sometime asked Plato about life in Athens. Plato res-
ponded by sending to him comedies of Aristophanes, urging him to answer
his questions by studying these works:
learn their polity” (KOSTER
reality ends and where the comedy or the truth starts”, according to Ehrenberg
-
-
sation against Socrates in the Clouds” (=τὴν κατὰ Σωκράτους ἐν Νεφέλαις κατηγορίαν”,
see: KOSTER XXVIII: 46-9), it is really weird if and how Plato would send to
Dionysius a theatrical play (Clouds), which humiliates his mentor, Socrates,
and which later was used — one way or another — in order to condemn the
greatest philosopher of the ancient world. According to ‘Vitae of Aristophanes’
(Koster XXIXa; XXIIb; XXXIII 2), his goal was to answer the questions of
theatrical ones. It is a reasonable question if nowadays someone would act
in the same way by recommending the complete works of a famous poet or
literature of the 21
st
-
the study of dramatic poetry or Comediography1. This is the reason why the
literature works usually indicate — if not represent — the structure of the
society they refer to (see SEAFORDKECHAGIAS
2) Linguistic terminology and aims of education in Clouds
BYL
DOVER, 1993) that would sound “technical” to the audience of Athens. This
but a loanword
BAXTER,
FUNGHI, 1997: 33-4; JANKO∙ in:
-
tion about the way that his son, Phidippides, thinks: “Reform your habits as qui-
. [ἔκστρεψον ὡς τάχιστα τοὺς σαυτοῦ
τρόπους, / καὶ μάνθαν’ ἐλθὼν ἅν ἐγὼ παραινέσω’
2
learn
1
etc.
2
Clouds. The Comedies
of Aristophanes. London. Bohn
517
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
(‘μάνθανε’), encouragement (‘παραίνεσις’) is also crucial for the teaching proce-
dure. The alteration of the way of thinking and the one of habits would lead
παραίνεσις
is the wide basis on which learning can occur (VRETTOS
thing happens in :
διδάσκου
Καὶ τί σοι μαθήσομαι;)
Go’ (‘ἴθι’) at the beginning of the sentence indicates the
encouragement (‘παραίνεσις-
ght’=‘διδάσκου’) completes with clarity this encouragement. Phidippides then,
answers with a question: (=‘Καὶ τί σοι μαθήσομαι;’). He is
-
-
learn for you?” Strepsiades responds: “You will learn Unjust Cause, so we can
pay our debts.” This is the way that the issue of need for teaching
Clouds. Strepsiades asks his son to be a
The pair ‘teach – learn’ appears again in , when Strepsiades de
-
cides to join Socrates’ ‘Thinkery’ on his own (‘αὐτός-
fusal: ‘..διδάξομαι...μαθήσομαι’. The original reaction of the people at the “Thinkery”
is to consider him as ‘uneducated’, rough, raw, without manners, because
(‘σύγγνωθί μοι’, -
ty: ‘for I here am come as a disciple/student to this Thinkery’ (‘ἥκω μαθητὴς ἐς τὸ
φροντιστήριον’, ). Strepsiades comes to them to become a student. He
is not yet one, nor was he. He shows his will to learn and, as a consequence,
he thinks he knows. The student who is responsible for welcoming and gui-
ding him into the “Thinkery”, introduces him at once into the core of the ba-
sic idea that rules this “School”: ‘I will tell you; but you must regard these as
mysteries’ (‘νομίσαι δὲ ταύτα χρὴ μυστήρια’, Nub.143]. These secrets–mysteries refer
to Schools of brotherhoods, such as the one of the followers and disciples of
Pythagoras of Samos, where the rules are being considered as a dogma. Silence
518
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
the name and the fame of Socrates, but he creates a fantasy world of a non-
-Socratic School: a thinkery which produces Sophists.
and methods (like ‘how high a bug can jump in relation to the human foot?’,
and asks the student to start the “Thinkery” immediately, in order to take part
and learn ((=‘μαθητιῶ γὰρ’, -
there: (=ἵνα με διδάξῃς), -
ak’ (=‘βουλόμενος μαθεῖν λέγειν’), ‘but teach me the other one of your two causes’ (=δίδαξον
τὸν ἕτερον τοῖν σοῖν λόγοιν, ). He wants to be taught the Unjust Cause
‘pay scho-
ol fees’ὁμοῦμαι θεούς’).
Socrates starts the teaching procedure with his classic (Socratic) techni-
ques. He asks Strepsiades
(). The clear knowledge of things and how these things
-
trance, accompanied by loud claps of thunder, he asks for help Clouds, who
γνώμην’), “speech” (‘διάλεξιν’) and “mind” (‘νοῦν’), etc.
. These are
the ones that teach, learn, broaden the mind, propel the speech, etc.
-
derbolts in the atmosphere (-
gues further about the similarity of phenomena in the (Greek) language
(βροντὴ). This method is familiar to the Socratic way. Some attempts to origin
-
origins from ἀεί βάλλωνψυχή” from φυσέχη>φύσιν ὀχεῖ καὶ
ἔχει3. Aristophanes does not do anything more or less. He
both the famous ‘reliability check’ in the inside of the philosophical – scien-
much later by Epicure at ‘Letter to Herodotus’, in which he talks to a child in
3
Collection/Anthology of all the
examples at Ferrante
519
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
order to show him that he should not be afraid of thunderbolts, (
).
Δῖνος’). The com-
mentaries4 in Clouds (
(the presocratic philosophers) in his mind, with ‘δίνησιν αιθερίαν’. He correlates
‘Δῖνος’ with ‘’, because ‘αιθέριος
the way that ‘hippios=ἵππιος’ refers to Poseidon), while he cites the image of
Δίνου-Διός’ lies
in the basis of Strepsiades’ interpretation about the phenomenon of thunder.
Clouds-
-
-
)
6
ἐδίδαξας’ (‘you taught me’).
In another part of the play (
of his creditors, Amynias, who comes in order to protest about Phidippides’
debt to him, trying to collect the interest of his money at least. Strepsiades
uses the term ‘τόκος’ (=interest) with its double meaning: it means the interest
of a loan and a child as well. This double meaning can be also found in
(). Strepsiades makes use here of a technique
-
of the last day of the month (‘ἕνη τε καὶ νέα’), when he is going to be impeached
at the jury paying the essential deposit, because it is not about one day, but
two days (‘ἕνη’ – ‘νέα’) ().
Socrates becomes upset with the fact that uneducated Strepsiades cannot
understand the importance of the ‘real’ language nor the immediate connec-
έτυμον’ (=original meaning) of the words.
Socrates, in Clouds
,
Strepsiades needs three whole lines in order to describe glass: ‘Have you ever
seen this stone in the chemist's shops, the beautiful and transparent one, from which
-
nition:
In , the philosopher/sophist asks Strepsiades to cite some quadru-
ped male animals. Student/Strepsiades refers to the rooster (‘ἀλεκτρυών’), amon-
4
5
‘σφαίρος-δίνος’
…και γαρ Δίς και Ζήν και
Δήν και Ζάς και Ζής παρά Φερεκύδει κατά
κίνησιν ιδίαν’ κ.α.
6
Nub.380
520
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
corrects him, teaching him to call ‘ἀλέκτορα’ the male one and ‘ἀλεκτρύαινα’ the
female one: ‘Socrates: -
le and the male alektryon in the same way’ (see: PEPPLERCHANTRAINE-
CHANTRAINEFRAENKEL
– Strepsiades makes the same mistake in Nub.667 as for the “κάρδοπον” (=trou-
gh) and ‘καρδόπην
‘Amynias/
Amynia’ (in
ROSENSTRAUCH
about the use of genres (grammatically; see:
historical Socrates’ last words before drinking the hemlock was ‘ἀλεκτρυόνα’(=alek-
tryon
3) Socrates’ ‘Thinkery’
In the beginning of the play, Strepsiades makes a pun with the alliteration
of the words ἄνδρες (men) and ἄνθρακες
Socrates’ School (). In order to collate the learning procedure at that
πνιγεὺς’): He claims that Socrates’ Thinkery (‘phron-
tisterion’, ) is ‘ψυχῶν σοφῶν’ (a place of wise souls) where men who study
the sky and change other people’s minds inhabit (‘ἀναπείθουσιν’). This place is
are just coal(s) (‘ἄνθρακες’). They teach you to win in words for both the Just and
the Unjust Cause (‘λέγοντα νικᾶν καὶ δίκαια κἄδικα’), under the circumstance that
you pay them (‘ἀργύριον ἤν τις διδῷ’) (), despite the fact that Socrates con
-
sidered the teaching for money equal to the corporal prostitution.
Sophist- Socrates in Clouds and his students reside in Thinkery, in a pla-
GOLDBERG, 1976)
7
. In the dictionary
of Platonic philosophical terms
, ‘φροντίς’ (care) is the cogitation, the thinking
-
ἐκείνοις..ἴσως οὐδὲ εἷς περὶ
τούτου λόγος οὐδὲ φροντίςE). Someone has to take care of the mat-
ters of soul (‘τῆς ψυχῆς ὅπως ὡς βελτίστη ἔσται οὐ ἐπιμελεῖ οὐδὲ φροντίζεις’,
), while ‘φροντιστής’ (indagator) is generally the researcher: ‘τά τε μετέωρα
φροντιστὴς καὶ τὰ ὑπὸ γῆς ἅπαντα ἀνεζητηκώςΦρόντισμα’ is the object
7
8 Vocum
Platonicarum
521
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
of thinking, what someone thinks a thought. The term ‘phrontisterion’ is
being used by Philostratus the Athenean9
Socrates in Clouds is being called as ‘φροντιστής’ (someone who thinks de-
-
nically. It is worth mentioning that the noun φροντίς
Clouds (
(Burnet, 1924:76) and only four times more in all the other Aristophanes’ sa-
Chorus to mention the care, concern and not the thinking — study. Aristophanes
in Clouds calls Socrates and his students as ‘μεριμνοφροντισταὶ’ (=minute phi-
losophers, noble, in ), because ‘μέριμνα’ is conceptually similar to ‘φροντίδα’
ἀπεριμερίμνως’ (=carelessly) by bru-
tally kicking the door of the Thinkery. For that reason, the student who opens
ἀμαθής’ (uneducated) (in
).
) Socrates appears inside the Thinkery, Strepsiades sees
him hanging (‘οὐπὶ τῆς κρεμάθρας’): ‘I am walking in the air, and speculating
about the sun’ (=ἀεροβατῶ11 καὶ περιφρονῶ τὸν ἥλιον
-
derworld’ (‘ἐρεβοδιφώσιν ὑπὸ τὸν Τάρταρον’). Strepsiades understands ‘υπερ-φρονώ’
instead, which leads him to think that sophist — Socrates despises of Gods,
him as a teacher :
(
the care, and mortal Strepsiades is skill-less and uneducated as we saw pre-
νηπύτιος-
nonym for ‘νήπιος’ (=infant, but also fool and uneducated) and is used only
once by Aristophanes at Clouds-
of Aeschylus. Infants are also Ulysses’
etc.
Strepsiades is introduced to the Socratic Thinkery (), in pa-
rody of introduction ceremonies, the ‘ψυχῶν σοφῶν’ (=of wise spirits. ),
which combines elements from the teaching of Pythagoras (
10
11
αἰθροβάτης
9
Lipsiae.
522
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
the society of Athens [see
12
ἱερόν σκίμποδα) and wears ‘chaplet’
(στέφανον’,
of this aristophanic ‘School’ etc.
4) Teaching techniques
In Clouds it is crucial that Socrates teaches and Strepsiades cannot learn,
-
ment of Socrates’ appearance (), he starts incessantly to teach, to ask,
διδάσκω’
(teach) and ‘μανθάνω’ (learn) can be found widely throughout the play but as
certain terms can be found more than forty times, while Socrates is on stage
until the appearance of Just and Unjust Cause (). The teacher applies
-
ducated’, ‘barbarian’ (), ‘άπορος
‘forgetful’ (), rough () etc.
-
-
tandard and completely elementary. The lack of general and wide education
to the Thinkery (‘learn instead of me’=ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ μάνθανε’, ), he says to
him that ‘you will know yourself, how ignorant and stupid you are’ (=γνώσει δὲ
σαυτὸν ὡς ἀμαθὴς’,
is inherently fond of learning (‘θυμόσοφος
-
to knowledge (). The educational techniques, though, that sophist
and can be summarized as follows:
7
him in the modus that he (Strepsiades) already has, so that Socrates can be
able to know what kind of ‘καινὰς μηχανὰς
-
’, ).
7
mnemonic or not. Strepsiades,
they owe him money he can remember it, while when he owes money he
forgets it.
12La Scene de
l'initiation dans les 'Nubes' d’
Aristophane
523
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
7 The teacher asks him if (
gets disappointed.
7 As an antidote to his student’s ignorance, he threatens to punish him (‘μὴ
πληγῶν δέει’, ), but when Strepsiades answers correctly, he rewards
him ().
7
he can be too ().
7
-
mined (
7
The Chorus encourages Strepsiades to concentrate fully on the problem and
when he comes to a dead-end (‘ἄπορον πέσῃς’) to change to another ‘meaning’
(-
ne it again, in case of a dead-end thought ().
7 To distribute the parts of the problem (‘σχάσας..κατὰ μικρὸν
(‘ὀρθῶς καὶ σκοπῶν’, ).
7
().
Clouds, that
Aristophanes uses the terms ‘learning’ and ‘teaching’ nearly throughout the
by Aristophanes’ Socrates, some of which are:
i.
platonic dialogues, teacher — Socrates, though, instructs student — Strepsiades
responding.
ii.
blowzy, while the bugs at Strepsiades’ blanket intensify the comedy issue.
iii. Obstetric method and practice. Some primary obstetric techniques are
being used and some related forms can be found, i.e. the distraction of thou-
ght of a student ( ‘φροντίδ᾽ ἐξήμβλωκας ἐξηυρημένην’), who was interrup-
ted while thinking due to the noise, that Strepsiades made by kicking the
door. Socrates, like a midwife, helps in the birth of new Ideas, and if this
procedure discontinues, then the encapsulated thoughts become aborted.
start again, following another path, if a searching method or a thought le-
ads to a dead-end.
524
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
-
-
-
Besides the comedy element / issue / thing, it is useful to keep on insisting
Criticism on both the despotic and the non-despotic education of his
5) Conclusion
The Agon between Just and Unjust Cause that occurs in a central scene of the
play (), represents the struggle between two worlds and two edu-
cational methods: On the one side lays the old, traditional, the classic past
-
-
metime during the play, criticizing both of them. He is interested, though, in
Education (-
tice of sophistic tricks taught by the principal — Socrates in Thinkery” —
-
since the establishment of the teacher’s role:
STREPSIADES
SOCRATES
STREPSIADES
O my dear, my dear!
525
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
SOCRATES
STREPSIADES
of your complexion!
-
“Thinkery” School, he does not manage to learn anything, apart from some so-
ὁρᾷς οὖν ὡς ἀγαθὸν τὸ
μανθάνειν;’ (). Phidippides,
-
phist, the only thing that he manages to do by using this knowledge, is to show
As for the general purposes of knowledge, the teaching at the sophists’ “Thinkery”
School failed completely. The regularity of the drama that has been distorted,
because (in Hermes words) sophist — Socrates and his students (‘τοὺς θεοὺς
ἠδίκουν-
Perhaps this idea was so well–spread amongst the ancient Athenians that (co-)
in the 423 B.C. in Athens, the poet of Frogs, who at the most crucial moments
of modernist Euripides, chooses to burn the sophist Thinkery–School in
Clouds-
tead of the sophistic art at its basis. This educational choice of Aristophanes
th century B.C.
Bibliography
Clouds, Mysteries, Socrates and Plato, Antichthon 4.
Vocum Platonicarum
526
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
The Cratylus: Plato's Critique of Naming
Platonis Opera
Burnet, J. (1924). Plato's Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates and Crito (ed. with
Dialect in Aristophanes and the Politics of Language
in Ancient Greek Literature
Clouds
Aristophanic Comedy. Berkeley and Los Angeles
Frogs
Duranti, Alessandro (1997). Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge.
Ehrenberg, Victor (1962). The People of Aristophanes: A Sociology of Old Attic
Comedy (3rd edn.). New York.
Philostratus the Athenian. Carl Ludwig
Kayser. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Lipsiae.
The Derveni Papyrus, in Andre Laks and
Studies on the Derveni Papyrus
A Note on Aristophanes ‘φροντιστήριον
Hicks R.D. (1972). Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Diogenes Laertius. Cambridge.
Hudson, R. A. (1996). Sociolinguistics (2nd edn.). Cambridge.
Janko, Richard (1997). The Physicist as Hierophant: Aristophanes,
Operational principles and Social structure of the Greek
culture. Athens: Atrapos
On the nature of position. Athens: Herodotos
Κεχαγιάς ΧΑμοιβαιότητα και ανταπόδοση, μορφές και οι απαρχές της
Φιλοσοφίας της Παιδείας, ΗΩΣ, τόμος 4, τεύχος 2.
Prolegomena de comoedia. Fasc. IA, Prolegomena de
comoedia. Groningen.
Poetics (ed. with introd., comm., and appendi-
Comic Dramaturgy in Plato: Observations from the Ion. In
Gabriele Cornelli (ed.), Plato's Styles and Characters: Between Literature
Από την αγωγή στην εκπαίδευση: Επισημάνσεις στην
εξέλιξη της παιδαγωγικής επιστήμης. Αθήνα: Διάδραση
Η ικανότητα μαθηματικοποίησης και επίλυσης προβλήματος
από τους μαθητές Β' και Γ' Γυμνασίου, Ευκλείδης Γ΄, εκδ. Ε.Μ.Ε, Αθήνα, τεύχος
σελ
527
Revista do Laboratório de Dramaturgia – LADI – UnB – Vol. 7, Ano 3
Ideias e Críticas
Η ομοηχία στη νέα ελληνική:
ορολογία και τυπολογία. Μελέτες για την Ελληνική γλώσσα. Πρακτικά της
ης ετήσιας συνάντησης του τομέα Γλωσσολογίας του Τμήματος Φιλολογίας
του Α.Π.Θ. Θεσσαλονίκη, 436-449
O'Hara, James J. (1996). True Names:
Comic Terminations in Aristophanes: Part V. AJPh
The Ethnography of Communication: An
Introduction
Reciprocity and Ritual, ΜΙΕΤ, Athens.
Aeschylus. Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert
The Guide and the Mentor
"Promoting Teacher Education-From Intake system to teaching practice",
Van der Eijk, Philip J. (1997). Towards a Rhetoric of Ancient Scientic Discourse:
Some Formal Characteristics of Greek Medical and Philosophical Texts
(Hippocratic Corpus, Aristotle), in Egbert J. Bakker (ed.), Grammar as
Interpretation: Greek Literature in its Linguistic Contexts
Suppl. 171). Leiden, New York, and Cologne, 77-129.
Βίοι Κωμικών, Αριστοφ. Βίος, βιβλ
Theories Agogis. Vol. 1. Plato, Comenius, Rousseau. Athens.
The Languages of Aristophanes: Aspects of Linguistic Variation
in Classical Attic Greek
The Language of Greek Comedy: Introduction and
Bibliographical Sketch
Empedocles: The Extant Fragments
comm., concordance, and new bibliography). London and Indianapolis.
