Episode Details

Aristophanes was the greatest comic playwright of ancient Athens, and his mockery of Socrates in The Clouds may have contributed to the philosopher's trial and execution. He attacked politicians, intellectuals, and warmongers with equal ferocity, turning the Athenian stage into a weapon of public satire.

This episode examines how Aristophanes used comedy to shape Athenian politics and whether his caricature of Socrates carried real consequences.

• The Clouds and its portrait of Socrates as a fraudulent sophist
• Socrates's own claim at trial that Aristophanes prejudiced the jury
• Lysistrata and its radical antiwar premise
• Why Old Comedy functioned as political speech in Athenian democracy