Dover says in
the ‘Introduction’ to his edition of The
Clouds that Aristophanes’ ‘Socrates teaches for payment (98, 245 f., 1146
ff.), and he teaches forensic rhetoric, by means of which a man in the wrong can
persuade his hearers that he is right. That is why Strepsiades seeks out
Socrates, and that is what Pheidippides learns.’ (Dover xxxiv.)
The two
claims concerning Socrates in The Clouds,
i.e. the claim that he teaches for money and the claim that he teaches forensic
oratory a closely related, yet very differently treated by Aristophanes. In
this post I shall discuss the first claim. In doing so I shall follow Dover’s
references. The first reference is to the line 98, in which Strepsiades tells
his son: ‘These men teach, if one gives them money (houtoi didaskous’, argurion ȇn tis didȏi, 98), to win by speaking (legonta nikan), both when one is in the right
and when one is in the wrong (kai dikaia
k’adika, 99).’ When his son asks ‘But who are they (eisi de tines)?’ Strepsiades answers: ‘I don’t precisely know their
name’ (ouk oid’ akribȏs t’ounoma, 100).
This point is
of fundamental importance for our understanding of The Clouds, where Socrates is viewed through the eyes of
Strepsiades, the Twister. The most atrocious twisting – ‘these men teach, if
one gives them money’ – occurs before Strepsiades meets Socrates. When he wants
to send his son to the ‘Thinkery of the wise souls’ (l. 94) he does not even
know the name of Socrates and his associates.
There can be
little doubt that there were teachers of rhetoric in Athens in those days. On
opening his school of rhetoric, Isocrates, a contemporary of Plato and
Xenophon, distances himself from the teachers of rhetoric of the past
generation: ‘There remain to be considered those who lived before our time and
did not scruple to write the so-called arts of oratory. These must not be
dismissed without rebuke, since they professed to teach how to conduct
law-suits, picking out the most discredited of terms, which the enemies, not
the champions, of this discipline might have expected to employ – and that too although
this facility, in so far as it can be taught, is of no greater aid to forensic
than to all other discourse.’ (Against
the Sophist 19-20) – The question is, whether Aristophanes viewed Socrates
as one of such teachers. To get some clarity into this question, we must
consider the two remaining passages to which Dover refers.
At 244-9
Strepsiades asks Socrates ‘but teach me (alla
me didaxon) the other of your two systems of argument (ton heteron toin soin logoin), how not to pay debts (ton mȇden apodidonta); whatever pay you
ask (misthon d’ hontina prattȇi m’),
I swear by the gods I shall pay you (omoumai
soi katathȇsein tous theous).’ – Socrates: ‘By what gods do you swear (poious theous omei su)? For firstly (prȏton gar), we do not consider gods to
be money (prȏton gar theoi hȇmin nomism’
ouk esti).’ – Strepdiades: ‘By whom do you swear then (tȏi gar omnut’)? By iron currency (ȇ sidareoisi) like in Byzantium (hȏsper en Buzantiȏi?)’
Strepsiades
expects that Socrates will exact payment, and promises to pay him whatever he
may ask, but far from entering into any pay agreement, Socrates makes it clear
to him that he and his circle does not worship money. Strepsiades understands
what he means, as his ‘By whom do you swear then, by iron currency?’ indicates.
Iron currency was proverbial; it pointed to a community for which money had no
intrinsic value. A scholiast quotes Plato, the comic writer: ‘We would find it
difficult to live in Byzantium where iron currency is used.’
Dover’s
third reference is to line 1146 onwards. Strepsiades comes to fetch his son
from Socrates’ House of thinking (phrontistȇrion).
He addresses Socrates: ‘Take this one first (alla toutoni prȏton labe): it’s proper to show some admiration (chrȇ gar epithaumazein ti) for the
teacher (ton didaskalon, 1146-7).’ A
scholiast interprets ‘this one’ as a sack of meal and refers to line 669 where
Strepsiades says: ‘I will fill your trough with barley’. At that point the only
response of Socrates was his indignation at Strepsiades’ unrefined use of
grammar.
In his
’Commentary’ Dover adduces line 876 as additional evidence that Socrates was
teaching for payment: ‘Socrates is a clever salesman. Having in effect refused Pheidippides
as a hopelessly immature pupil – and having thus created an agonizing anxiety
in Strepsiades – he adds musingly, “All the same, for a talent …” implying that
he might be able to teach Pheidippides, but it cannot fail to be very difficult
and very expensive.’ In fact, the only thing line 876 implies is that there are
teachers who would teach Pheidippides ‘the artful art of persuasion’ (chaunȏsin anapeistȇrian, 875) for money:
‘All the same, Hyperbolos learnt this for a talent (kaitoi ge talantou tout’ emathen Huperbolos, 876).’
Knut Kleve
in his ‘Anti-Dover or Socrates in the Clouds’
suggests that Socrates wants to hand Pheidippides to other tutors (Symbolae Osloenses, 1983, vo. LVIII, p.
28). Plato’s dialogues support Kleve’s suggestion. Thus in The Theaetetus Socrates says that he accepts as his companions (hoi emoi sungignomenoi) only those who
feel the pains (ȏdinousi) of
intellectual pregnancy: ‘But there are some people who somehow don’t seem to me
to be pregnant. Once I know that they have no need of me, I’m kind enough to
arrange matches (panu eumenȏs promnȏmai)
for them, and, with God’s help, I guess quite adequately whose intercourse
they’d benefit from. I’ve given away several of them to Prodicus, and several
to other wise and gifted gentlemen.’ (151 a-b, tr. McDowell) In The Cratylus Hermogenes wants to know
the meaning of his own name. Socrates: ‘Then investigate it (Skopei toinun)!’ – Hermogenes: ‘How
should one investigate it (Pȏs oun chrȇ
skopein)?’ – Socrates: ‘The most correct way of investigating (orthotatȇ men tȇs skepseȏs), my friend (ȏ hetaire), is with those who know (meta tȏn epistamenȏn), paying them money
(chrȇmata ekeinois telounta) and
giving them gratitude (kai charitas
katatithemenon). These are the sophists (eisi de houtoi hoi sophistai), to whom your brother Callias (hoisper kai ho adelphos sou Kallias) gave
a lot of money (polla telesas chrȇmata),
appearing to be wise (sophos dokei einai)
(391b6-c1). – Does Aristophanes make his Socrates any less ironical when he
lets him refer to Hyperbolos than Plato when he makes him refer to Callias?
Dover remarks on Hyperbolos: ‘The implication is that Hyperbolos’s prowess as a
persuasive speaker owes nothing to his native wit but everything to an abnormal
effort on the part of a teacher.’ (Dover, on line 876.)
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