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Socrates descends in a suspended basket in Aristophanes’ The Clouds.

The Claim

In Aristophanes' The Clouds, Socrates is lowered on a hammock.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

The play depicts Socrates descending in a suspended basket, not on a hammock. Multiple translations and scholarly discussions agree on the basket interpretation, while none of the cited evidence uses “hammock.” Uncertainty about the apparatus’s exact construction does not support substituting that term.

Caveats

  • Some English stage directions are editorial additions rather than wording preserved verbatim in the ancient Greek text.
  • The exact design of the supporting apparatus is uncertain, but scholarship generally identifies it as a basket.
  • Several online editions reproduce the same nineteenth-century translation and are not independent corroboration.

The Receipts

  1. Clouds

    doi.org

  2. Aristophanes, Clouds, line 180

    perseus.tufts.edu

  3. Aristophanes, Clouds, line 221

    perseus.tufts.edu

  4. The vertical axis and the agôn between theatre and philosophy

    philpapers.org

  5. Aristophanes, Clouds (Ar.Nu.)

    topostext.org

  6. Aristophanes , Clouds

    loebclassics.com

  7. The Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853)/Clouds - Wikisource, the free online library

    en.wikisource.org

  8. The Clouds by Aristophanes - The Internet Classics Archive

    classics.mit.edu

  9. Aristophanes, Clouds (e-text)

    web.viu.ca

  10. The Clouds

    en.wikipedia.org

+ 9 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

AristophanesSocratesThe Clouds

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