Aristophanes’ Clouds: An Agonistic Note

Abstract

THIS PAPER first argues that ancient scholars’ view that Aristophanes’ revised Clouds was never performed, presumably based on its absence from the didaskaliae of the Athenian Dionysia and Lenaea, fails to allow for its possible performance at one of the deme dramatic festivals, some of which are attested as early as the fifth century. It also argues that the view of Dover and others that the text as transmitted could not actually be performed, based partly on the apparent need for a choral song at 889, can be countered by a dramaturgical interpretation which has the actor who had been playing Socrates visibly take on the role of the Weaker or Unjust Logos for the cameo agon between the two Logoi.