Thinking Through The Clouds: Comedy in Hegel and Strauss

Abstract

This article reconstructs a dialogue between three modern philosophical treatments of the Ancient Greek comic poet Aristophanes's play, The Clouds (first performed in 423 BCE), which has generally been received as an unjust satire of Socrates. I argue that Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Leo Strauss all assume a rather unconventional position in their respective readings—especially given their status as philosophers—by actually coming to the comedian's defense, and by showing, in distinct but related ways, how his play grasps the “negativity” in Socrates more profoundly than do the other depictions of the philosopher that have been bequeathed to posterity. By further appealing to the hidden affinities between Aristophanes and Socrates, each of these modern thinkers, finally, shows himself to be invested in the specific function of the comedian‐satirist within the polis, an investment that has implications for both antiquity and modernity.