Opening The Clouds — Aristophanes in Plato Scroll…
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Aristophanes · Anonymous (Athenian Society, 1912)
Roman bust of Socrates, c. 100 BC ‘The Death of Socrates’ by Jacques-Louis David, 1787. Many believe, including Plato, that Aristophanes’ play had a hand in influencing public opinion against the great thinker, leading to his execution. Great Gods! will these nights never end? will daylight never come? I heard the cock crow long ago and my slaves are snoring still! Ah! ’twas not so formerly. Curses on the War! has it not done me ills enough? Now I may not even chastise my own slaves. Again there’s this brave lad, who never wakes the whole long night, but, wrapped in his five coverlets, farts away to his heart’s content. Come! let me nestle in well and snore too, if it be possible … oh! misery, ’tis vain to think of sleep with all these expenses, this stable, these debts, which are devouring me, thanks to this fine cavalier, who only knows how to look after his long locks, to show …
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