Greek and Roman Art: The Clouds

Author: Aristophanes, a comedian from Athens. 

Time Period: (450-388BC)

Location: Written/preformed in Athens, during the festival paying tribute to the god Dionysus, who was the divine god of most Greek recreational activities. 

Yes, this is my own photo. (I worked
so hard to make this one just perfect!)

The Clouds is considered, by many scholars who study on the subject of historical drama, to be the first play ever written where the central purpose is to achieve the crowd’s laughter all the way through its duration, or simply put, a comedy.  The story is an almost textbook case of irony, as the main character’s motives end up being the result of his own misery in the end.

Interesting Facts:

The play, believe it or not, actually has nothing to do with clouds at all!  The word clouds is used in place of the word gods, and implies that the gods are against the main character in the story and only want to punish him for sending his son away to the Thinkery for his own self interests.  How sad. 

Although the play has been translated into many international & non-Greek languages, there is no written copy in existence of the original ancient Greek text before it was revised.  It is thought that some of the things had to be reworded in order for it to make sense to foreign audiences, so a few minor details of The Clouds may have been lost in translation.  

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Further Reading: 

1. http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/netshots/clouds.htm
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clouds