The Clouds

Socrates comes back to the stage, exasperated. Invoking a pantheon of newfangled gods, he complains that he has never encountered “such a clueless stupid forgetful bumpkin” as Strepsiades (629-30). Hoping that a new approach may fare better, Socrates invites Strepsiades outside to lie in a bed. He tries unsuccessfully to teach him about weights and with the Chorus measures and grammar.

Socrates orders Strepsiades to lie in his bed beneath a blanket and instructs him in how to practice intellectual incubation, in which ideas arise spontaneously. Strepsiades complains that bedbugs are devouring him. With Socrates’s encouragement, Strepsiades thinks of some outlandish strategies to deal with his debts and litigation. His ideas are so ridiculous that Socrates loses patience and throws him out, declaring that he will not teach him anymore.

Strepsiades, distraught, asks the Clouds for advice. They suggest that he find somebody younger to take his place at the Thinkery and study with Socrates. Strepsiades determines to ask Pheidippides again to enroll at the Thinkery, saying that he will throw him out of his house if he does not obey.

Strepsiades leaves as the Clouds wish him luck and finds Pheidippides at home. After giving him a garbled version of some of the lessons he learned from Socrates, such as how Vortex has overthrown Zeus as supreme god and the grammatical word for a female fowl.