hstry

Aristophanes' Socrates on the gods

423 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus). Aristophanes’ Socrates, in the Clouds.

Where and when

423 BCEAthens (Theatre of Dionysus)

2,448 years ago

Explore
Aristophanes, c. 446 – c. 386 BCE3000 BCE2900 BCE2800 BCE2700 BCE2600 BCE2500 BCE2400 BCE2300 BCE2200 BCE2100 BCE2000 BCE1900 BCE1800 BCE1700 BCE1600 BCE1500 BCE1400 BCE1300 BCE1200 BCE1100 BCE1000 BCE900 BCE800 BCE700 BCE600 BCE500 BCE400 BCE300 BCE200 BCE100 BCE1 CE100 CE200 CE300 CE400 CE500 CE600 CE700 CE800 CE900 CE1000 CE1100 CE1200 CE1300 CE1400 CE1500 CE1600 CE1700 CE1800 CE1900 CE2000 CEGreat Pyramid of Giza built, c. 2600 BCERome founded (traditional date), 753 BCELast western Roman emperor deposed, 476 CEGutenberg's printing press, c. 1440 CEColumbus reaches the Americas, 1492 CEFirst people on the Moon, 1969 CEToday, 2026

Swipe the line. Bars: entries. Dots: events.

Aristophanes

, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)Aristophanes’ Socrates, in the Clouds

In plain words, ours

Which gods will you swear by? Gods are not the currency we use around here.

By what gods will you swear? For, in the first place, gods are not a current coin with us.

Aristophanes, Clouds line 247Translated by William James Hickie (1853)Read the full passage (Aristophanes, Clouds line 247, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

In Aristophanes' comedy Clouds, Strepsiades, plundered by his creditors, has come to the play's Socrates to learn how to speak. He offers to swear by the gods that he will pay any fee.

Checked claim by claim against: the passage around the quote.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. c. 441 BCEabout 18 years earlier Antigone defies Creon Also about the gods
  2. 427 BCE4 years earlier Athens votes to kill Mytilene's men, then relents Also in Athens
  3. 425 BCE2 years earlier Spartans surrender on Sphacteria Same years
  4. 424/423 BCEDuring it Thucydides fails to save Amphipolis and is exiled Same years
  5. 423 BCEThis momentAristophanes' Socrates on the gods
  6. 423 BCESame year A disciple of Socrates on the flea Same passageMore from Aristophanes
  7. 423 BCESame year Strepsiades on the gnat's trumpet More from Aristophanes
  8. 423 BCESame year Strepsiades on the better and worse cause Same passage
  9. 423 BCESame year Aristophanes' Socrates walks on air More from Aristophanes
  10. 422 BCE1 year later Cleon and Brasidas both die at Amphipolis Same years
  11. 421 BCE2 years later The Peace of Nicias Also in Athens
  12. c. 431–411 BCEDuring it Socrates on guardians sharing wives and children Same years
  13. c. 430–405 BCEDuring it Socrates would rather suffer wrong than do it Also in Athens
  14. 415 BCE7.899999999999977 years later Statues of Hermes are smashed across Athens Also about the gods

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

Socrates: But if, being on the ground, I speculated from below on things above, I should never have discovered them. For the earth forcibly attracts to itself the meditative moisture. Water-cresses also suffer the very same thing.

Strepsiades: What do you say? Does meditation attract the moisture to the water-cresses? Come then, my little Socrates, descend to me, that you may teach me those things, for the sake of which I have come.

Socrates lowers himself and gets out of the basket.

Socrates: And for what did you come?

Strepsiades: Wishing to learn to speak; for by reason of usury, and most ill-natured creditors, I am pillaged and plundered, and have my goods seized for debt.

Socrates: How did you get in debt without observing it?

Strepsiades: A horse-disease consumed me--terrible at eating. But teach me the other one of your two causes, that which pays nothing; and I will swear by the gods, I will pay down to you whatever reward you exact of me.

The quote: Socrates: By what gods will you swear? For, in the first place, gods are not a current coin with us.

Strepsiades: By what do you swear? By iron money, as in Byzantium?

Socrates: Do you wish to know clearly celestial matters, what they rightly are?

Strepsiades: Yes, by Jupiter, if it be possible!

Socrates: And to hold converse with the Clouds, our divinities?

Strepsiades: By all means.

Socrates: (with great solemnity). Seat yourself, then, upon the sacred couch.

Strepsiades: Well, I am seated!

Socrates: Take, then, this chaplet.

Strepsiades: For what purpose a chaplet? Ah me! Socrates, see that you do not sacrifice me like Athamas!

Socrates: No; we do all these to those who get initiated.

Strepsiades: Then what shall I gain, pray?

Socrates: You shall become in oratory a tricky knave, a thorough rattle, a subtle speaker.

Aristophanes, Clouds lines 230–260Translated by William James Hickie (1853)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
423 BCE. Clouds was first staged in 423 BCE; the text that survives is a partial revision Aristophanes made a few years later, which was never staged.
Whose words
Aristophanes’ Socrates, in the Clouds.
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

See it among its momentsMore from AristophanesSee it in the feed