The Clouds is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical Athens

ByFrank Adeche

Jun 17, 2021

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The Clouds is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright
Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical Athens. It
was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not
well received, coming last of the three plays competing at the
festival that year. It was revised between 420-417 BC and thereafter
it was circulated in manuscript form.]No copy of the original
production survives and scholarly analysis indicates that the revised
version is an incomplete form of Old Comedy. This incompleteness
however is not obvious in translations and modern performances. The
Clouds can be considered not only the world’s first extant ‘comedy of
Ideas but also a brilliant and successful example of that genre.

An innuendo is an indirect intimation about a person or thing,
especially of a disparaging or a derogatory nature. It can also be a
remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation),
that works obliquely by allusion. In the latter sense, the intention
is often to insult or accuse someone in such a way that one’s words,
taken literally, are innocent. According to the Advanced Oxford
Learner’s Dictionary, an innuendo is an indirect remark about somebody
or something, usually suggesting something bad, mean or rude”. The
term sexual innuendo has acquired a specific meaning, nearly that of a
“risqué” double entendre, by playing on a possibly sexual
interpretation of an otherwise innocent uttering. For example:

“We need to go deeper” can be seen as either a request for further
inquiry on any given issue or a request to go deeper into an orifice.
Sexual innuendo requires masterful manipulation of parts of speech
(and sometimes the skillful use body language), for most people it
comes quick. As a humor tool, it stands erect in the English language.
While there are no hard and fast rules as to what Constitutes sexual
innuendo, many people have mass-debated over the ins-and-outs of the
topic, and now the general principles at the root of the topic are
firm and well-rounded many writers find innuendo to be an incredibly
pleasurable experience and their urges to create innuendo-laced pages
build up until finally they gush forth a stream of innuendo which
impregnates the text with naughtiness. Some authors have said they
favored innuendo because it fills a void in their literature and their
readers often comment on how uplifting the innuendos are. This essay
seeks to examine literary importance of the use of sexual innuendo and
regular reference to sexual object in Aristophanes the Clouds. The
Clouds is a play primarily concerned with education. Nevertheless, it
is a play with a strong moral message and a tragic arc that ends with
the reassertion of the gods. It seeks to reconcile science and
religion.

The phrase “Old and New” is repeated throughout The Clouds in order to
advance and emphasize the thematic issue of the proper educational
system: old(meaning, traditional) or new (meaning sophistic). For
example debts were collected on this final day, the day of “Old and
New,” and it is Strepsiades’s anxiety over this day of (financial)
reckoning that leads him to the wild and crazy notion of learning
sophistry in order to outwit his creditors in court. Also, currency,
or money, is central to this play the wealth discrepancy between
Strepsiades and his wife makes his marriage uncomfortable and it is
his debts that make his nights unbearable with worry. The notion of
money suggests a legacy and the notion of a legacy or inheritance of
money suggests filial relationships. Therefore, the idea of money and
filly are intertwined. The symbol of the flea-ridden bed suggests the
futility, grossness, and triviality of sophistic pursuits.

The loony sophist Socrates considers the bed “appropriate” or
“conducive” to good, creative thought. The flea-ridden bed recalls the
“nit-picking” critique of sophistic argument and it also connotes
laziness and sloppiness. A flea-ridden bed is sloppy because it is
unclean and suggests how unhealthy the sophists’ disregard of worldly
matters was: unhealthy to the point of causing physical pain and
danger. Not only is sophistic argument hard on the listeners; it is
torturously hard and painful on the bodies and psyches of its
practitioners, warping them with its cruel and unusual demands. Also,
the bed is traditionally a symbol of sloth: a bed is not somewhere you
go to work hard at anything, but rather a place you go to relax and
not work. Therefore, being called to do hard work in bed is at root
perverse. There was a regular reference to sexual objects in the play
The Cloud for instance in a dialogue between the Student and
Strepsiades

Student:

“Chaerephon of sphettus once asked Socrates whether he was of the
opinion that gnats produced their hum by way of the mouth or-the other
end”.
In this dialogue “the other end” is used to represent the “Anus”.Also,
in this dialogue, another was when the student says;
“The intestinal passage of the gnats,” he replied. ’Is very narrow,
and consequently the wind is forced to go straight through to the back
end. And then the arse, being a hole farming the exit from this narrow
passage, groans under the force of the win.”
With this, the student refers to the sound that comes out of the anus
as “Farts”. Here, the literal importance it conveys encompasses the
whole idea of the comedy. Another reference to the anus as a sexual
object was when Strepsiades said; “That, I suppose explains why their
third eye (poking one of the students in the backside with his stick
so that he falls over) is looking at the sky”. By the third eye he was
referring to the “Anus’.

STREPSIADES
What are you saying now? Who causes the rain to fall? Answer me that!
SOCRATES
Why, these, and I will prove it. Have you ever seen it raining without
clouds? Let Zeus then cause rain with a clear sky and without their
presence!
STREPSIADES
By Apollo! That is powerfully argued! For my own part, I always
thought it was Zeus pissing into a sieve. But tell me, who is it makes
the thunder, which I so much dread?
SOCRATES
These, when they roll one over the other.
STREPSIADES
But how can that be? You most daring among men!
SOCRATES
Being full of water, and forced to move along, they are of necessity
precipitated in rain, being fully distended with moisture from the
regions where they have been floating; hence they bump each other
heavily and burst with great noise.
STREPSIADES
But is it not Zeus who forces them to move? A man’s scrotum being
filled with semen and made to move along in the sexual process is
without its own volition and full of it where it has been resident and
then they bump into each other and climax with great shouts
STREPSIADES
But is it not Zeus who forces them to move?
SOCRATES
Not at all; it’s the aerial Whirlwind.
STREPSIADES
The Whirlwind! Ah! I did not know that. So Zeus, it seems, has no
existence, and it’s the Whirlwind that reigns in his stead? But you
have not yet told me what makes the roll of the thunder?
SOCRATES
Have you not understood me then? I tell you, that the Clouds, when
full of rain, bump against one another, and that, being inordinately
swollen out, they burst with a great noise.

STREPSIADES
How can you make me credit that?

SOCRATES
Take yourself as an example. When you have heartily gorged on stew at
the Panathenaea, you get throes of stomach-ache and then suddenly your
belly resounds with prolonged rumbling.

STREPSIADES
Yes, yes, by Apollo I suffer, I get colic, and then the stew sets to
rumbling like thunder and finally bursts forth with a terrific noise.
At first, it’s but a little gurgling pappax, pappax! Then it increases
papapappax! And when I take my crap, why, its thunder indeed,
papapappax! pappax!! papapappax!!! Just like the clouds.

SOCRATES
Well then, reflect what a noise is produced by your belly, which is
but small. Shall not the air, which is boundless, produce these mighty
claps of thunder?

STREPSIADES
And this is why they are so much alike: crap and clap. But tell me
this. Whence comes the lightning, the dazzling flame, which at times
consumes the man it strikes, at others hardly singes him. Is it not
plain, that Zeus is hurling it at the perjurers?

SOCRATES
Out upon the fool! The driveller! He still savors of the golden age!
If Zeus strikes at the perjurers, why has he not blasted Simon,
Cleonymus and Theorus? Of a surety, greater perjurers cannot exist.
No, he strikes his own temple, and Sunium, the promontory of Athens,
and the towering oaks. Now, why should he do that? An oak is no
perjurer.

STREPSIADES
I cannot tell, but it seems to me well argued. What is the lightning
then? Strepsiades now goes to ask more questions in a bid to
understand if Zeus is indeed in charge and he comments and says but it
is not Zeus who forces them to move implying Zeus is not in control
and Socrates trying to humor him says it’s the whirlwind and goes on
to explain using Strepsiades encounters with food and the similar
effects it has on Zeus and then Socrates now says this explains the
thunder

Strepsiades now goes on to ask about the lightning now the literary
importance of the thunder and the lightning is explaining to
Strepsiades what goes on when beings are having intercourse, that it
does not have to be as explicit as when human beings have sex the
obvious sexual objects are the rain the thunder and the lightning not
really physical but in the terms of visible beings like the clouds and
Zeus actually tell us they are being implied as sexual innuendoes as
sexual objects
SOCRATES
When a dry wind ascends to the Clouds and gets shut into them, it
blows them out like a bladder; finally, being too confined, it bursts
them, escapes with fierce violence and a roar to flash into flame by
reason of its own impetuosity. the lightning is like an innuendo based
on what people experience within ecstasy as a blinding flash … this
is not a direct reference to asexual object but a regular occurrence
in humans explained usually as Lightning in the experience of Zeus and
the clouds

STREPSIADES
Ah, that’s just what happened to me one day. It was at the feast of
Zeus! I was cooking a sow’s belly for my filly and I had forgotten to
slit it open. It swelled out and, suddenly bursting, discharged itself
right into my eyes and burnt my face. Strepsiades now answers in his
own words what happened to him but there is so much sexual innuendo
here that the objects of sow belly bursting into his eyes could mean
violent uncontrolled ejaculation of semen by a man or the emission of
vaginal juices by a woman in the throes of sexual climax

LEADER OF THE CHORUS
Oh, mortal, you who desire to instruct yourself in our great wisdom,
the Athenians, the Greeks will envy you your good fortune. Only you
must have the memory and ardor for study, you must know how to stand
the tests, hold your own, go forward without feeling fatigue, caring
but little for food, abstaining from wine, gymnastic exercises and
other similar follies, in fact, you must believe as every man of
intellect should, that the greatest of all blessings is to live and
think more clearly than the vulgar herd, to shine in the contests of
words. At this time it seems Strepsiades has satisfied the Choruses as
they now recognize him as a mortal seeking more wisdom and give him
instructions that stray from the hearty discourse with Socrates filled
with sexual innuendoes and objects into a more Spartan and pious
outlook on life to live and to think more clearly than the vulgar herd
to shine in rhetoric and the contest of words more innuendoes below as
Socrates seemingly tries to “seduce” Strepsiades
STREPSIADES
That’s right, by Poseidon! But what next do you want me to give them?

SOCRATES
Term the female Pigeonnette and the male pigeon.

STREPSIADES
Pigeonnette! Hah! By the Air! That’s splendid! For that lesson bring
Out your kneading-trough and I will fill him with flour to the brim.
SOCRATES
There you are wrong again; you make trough masculine and it should be feminine.
STREPSIADES
What? If I say, him, do I make the trough masculine?
STREPSIADES
And is it not rightly done, since he refuses military service? But
What use is there in learning what we all know?

SOCRATES
You know nothing about it. Come, lie down there.

STREPSIADES
What for?
SOCRATES
Ponder awhile over matters that interest you.
STREPSIADES
Oh! I pray you, not there but, if I must lie down and ponder, let me
lie on the ground.
SOCRATES
That’s out of the question. Come! On the couch!
STREPSIADES( as he lies down
What cruel fate! What a torture the bugs will this day put me to!

STREPSIADES

Oh! I a dead man! Here are these cursed Corinthians advancing upon me
from all corners of the couch; they are biting me, they are gnawing at
my sides, they are drinking all my blood, they are yanking of my
balls, they are digging into my arse, they are killing me!
Chaerephophon of Sphettuse once asked Socrates whether he was of the
opinion that gnats produced their hum by way of mouth or the other
hand Socrates is talking about sex between gods and goddesses and uses
the rain thunder and lightning as Innuendoes complaining of a beating
that his new son has just given him in a dispute over the
celebrations,
now that is son is a nerd implying some gay tendencies he still has
his old physical anger he unleashes on his dad literal importance here
is that nerd ,gay or whatever people will still be their same in their
inner self
After calling strep to the couch for some quick
Psychoanalysis/incubation with or without ulterior motives the
incubation results in Strepsiades masturbating under the blanket
Strepsiadias sees masturbation as a sort of meditative quick fix but
obviously Socrates is not too impressed with his efforts. Hence the
use of and finally Socrates has had enough of his frustrations
apparent in his masturbation the literal importance is in the usage of
these innuendoes to convey the whole idea behind the comedy

Aristophanes’ comedy, Clouds, is a comedy of ancient Greeks using
rationalism, old science and clear atheism, there is a lawyerly
sophistry, as opined by Socrates schools of Athens. Intellectuals are
seen as arrogant unbelievers. They are more or less conmen for their
skills in rhetoric, which they use to beat the legality of the day
their heads are clearly in the clouds as to their self-importance and
upper class status

There is this underlining bias against rhetoric and when Strepsiades
happily burns down the so called school of thinker and of enlightment
clearly showing his disdain for the so called intellectual elite.

in summary We have looked at the use of sexual innuendo and regular
reference to sexual objects in Aristophanes play the cloud and we have
seen his portrayal of gods and goddesses as sentient beings like us
primarily receptive to our whims and desires based on how we worship
and tend to their godly needs and this shows us that primarily people
will be who they are no matter what we push them to they will

A sexual object basically is any thing that enhances the sexual
process be it self pleasurable or sadistic.. Freud believed that the
libido developed in

individuals by changing its object, a process codified by the concept
of sublimation. He argued that humans are born “polymorphously
perverse”,

meaning that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure.
[01:50:18 ] The Clouds is a comedy written by the celebrated
playwright Aristophanes lpooning intellectual fashions in classical
Athens. It was

originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not well
received, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival
that year. It

was revised between 420-417 BC and thereafter it was circulated in
manuscript form.[3] No copy of the original production survives and
scholarly

analysis indicates that the revised version is an incomplete form of
Old Comedy. This incompleteness however is not obvious in translations
and

modern performances. The Clouds can be considered not only the world’s
first extant ‘comedy of ideas'[5] but also a brilliant and successful
exple of

that genre.
An innuendo is an indirect intimation about a person or thing,
especially of a disparaging or a derogatory nature. It can also be a
remark or question,

typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely
by allusion. In the latter sense, the intention is often to insult or
accuse someone

in such a way that one’s words, taken literally, are innocent.
According to the Advanced Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, an innuendo is
“an indirect remark about somebody or something, usually suggesting

something bad, mean or rude”.[1]
The term sexual innuendo has acquired a specific meaning, nely that of
a “risque” double entendre by playing on a possibly sexual
interpretation of

an otherwise innocent uttering. For exple: “We need to go deeper” can
be seen as both a request for further inquiry on any given issue or a
request to

go deeper into an orifice. Sexual innuendo requires masterful
manipulation oof parts of speech ( and sometimes the skillful use body
language), for

most people it comes quick. As a humor tool, it stands erect in the
English language. While there are no hard and fast rules as to what
constitutes

sexual innuendo, many people have mass-debated over the ins-and-outs
of the topic, and now the general principles at the root of the topic
are firm

and well-rounded many writers find innuendo to be an incredibly
pleasurable experience and their urges to create innuendo-laced pages
build up until

finally they gush forth a stre of innuendo which impregnates the text
with naughtiness. Some authors have said they favoured innuendo
because it

fills a void in their literature and their readers often comment on
how uplifting the innuendos are.
This essay seeks to exine literary importance of the use of sexual
innuendo and regular reference to sexual object in Aristophanes The
Clouds. The

Clouds is a play primarily concerned with education. Nevertheless, it
is a play with a strong moral message and a tragic arc that ends with
the

reassertion of the gods. It seeks to reconcile science and religion.
The phrase “Old and New” is repeated throughout The Clouds in order to
advance

and emphasize the thematic issue of the proper educational system: old
(meaning, traditional) or new (meaning sophistic). For exple debts
were

collected on this final day, the day of “Old and New,” and it is
Strepsiades’s anxiety over this day of (financial) reckoning that
leads him to the wild

and crazy notion of learning sophistry in order to outwit his
creditors in court. Also, currency, or money, is central to this play:
the wealth discrepancy

between Strepsiades and his wife makes his marriage uncomfortable and
it is his debts that make his nights unbearable with worry. The notion
of

money suggests a legacy and the notion of a legacy or inheritance of
money suggests filial relationships. Therefore, the idea of money and
fily are

intertwined. the symbol of the flea-ridden bed suggests the futility,
grossness, and triviality of sophistic pursuits. The loony sophist
Socrates

considers the bed “appropriate” or “conducive” to good, creative
thought. The flea-ridden bed recalls the “nit-picking” critique of
sophistic argument

and it also connotes laziness and sloppiness. A flea-ridden bed is
sloppy because it is unclean and suggests how unhealthy the sophists’
disregard of

worldly matters was: unhealthy to the point of causing physical pain
and dage. Not only is sophistic argument hard on the listeners; it is
torturously

hard and painful on the bodies and psyches of its practitioners,
warping them with its cruel and unusual demands. Also, the bed is
traditionally a

symbol of sloth: a bed is not somewhere you go to work hard at
anything, but rather a place you go to relax and not work. Therefore,
being called to

do hard work in bed is at root perverse.
There was a regular reference to sexual objects in the play The cloud
for instance in a dialogue between the Student and Strapsiades
Student; “Chaerephon of sphettus once asked Socrates whether he was of
the opinion that gnats produced their hum by way
of the

mouth or-the other end”.
In this dialogue “the other end” is used to represent the “Anus”.
Also, in the se dialogue, another was when the student says;
“The intestinal passage of the gnats,” he replied. ’Is very narrow,
and consequently the wind is forced to go straight through to the back
end. And

then the arse, being a hole farming the exit from this narrow passage,
groans under the force of the win.”
With this, the student refers to the sound that comes out of the anus
as “Farts”. Here, the literal importance it conveys encompasses the
whole idea

of the comedy.
Another reference to the anus as a sexual object was when Strapsiades
said; “That, I suppose explains why their third eye (poking one of the

students in the backside with hil stick so that he falls over) is
looking at the sky”. By the third eye he was referring to the “Anus’.

The Clouds is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright
Aristophanes lpooning intellectual fashions in classical Athens. It
was originally produced

at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming
last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was
revised between

420-417 BC and thereafter it was circulated in manuscript form.[3] No
copy of the original production survives and scholarly analysis
indicates that

the revised version is an incomplete form of Old Comedy. This
incompleteness however is not obvious in translations and modern
performances. The

Clouds can be considered not only the world’s first extant ‘comedy of
ideas'[5] but also a brilliant and successful exple of that genre.
An innuendo is an indirect intimation about a person or thing,
especially of a disparaging or a derogatory nature. It can also be a
remark or question,