hstry

Strepsiades burns the thinking-shop

423 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus). Strepsiades speaking, in Aristophanes’ play.

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)Strepsiades speaking, in Aristophanes’ play

In plain words, ours

What got into you, insulting the gods and snooping around the moon?

For what has come into your heads that you acted insolently toward the gods, and pried into the seat of the moon?

Aristophanes, Clouds line 1506Translated by William James Hickie (1853)Read the full passage (Aristophanes, Clouds line 1506, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

This comes at the very end of Aristophanes' play. Strepsiades has climbed onto the roof of Socrates' thinking-shop and set it on fire, while Socrates and his students cry out from inside.

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. c. 429 BCEabout 6 years earlier Oedipus demands to learn his birth Also about knowing and not knowing
  3. 427 BCE4 years earlier Athens votes to kill Mytilene's men, then relents Also in Athens
  4. 425 BCE2 years earlier Spartans surrender on Sphacteria Same years
  5. 424/423 BCEDuring it Thucydides fails to save Amphipolis and is exiled Same years
  6. 423 BCEThis momentStrepsiades burns the thinking-shop
  7. 423 BCESame year A disciple of Socrates on the flea More from Aristophanes
  8. 423 BCESame year Strepsiades on the gnat's trumpet More from Aristophanes
  9. 423 BCESame year Phidippides argues for beating fathers Same passage
  10. 423 BCESame year Aristophanes' Socrates walks on air More from Aristophanes
  11. 422 BCE1 year later Cleon and Brasidas both die at Amphipolis Same years
  12. 421 BCE2 years later The Peace of Nicias Also in Athens
  13. c. 431–411 BCEDuring it Socrates on guardians sharing wives and children Same years
  14. c. 430–405 BCEDuring it Socrates would rather suffer wrong than do it Also in Athens
  15. 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

Strepsiades: But let some one bring me a lighted torch and I’ll make some of them this day suffer punishment, even if they be ever so much impostors.

1st Disciple: (from within). Hollo! Hollo!

Strepsiades: It is your business, O torch, to send forth abundant flame.

Mounts upon the roof.

1st Disciple: What are you doing, fellow?

Strepsiades: What am I doing? Why, what else, than chopping logic with the beams of your house?

Sets the house on fire.

2nd Disciple: (from within). Ah me! Who is setting fire to our house?

Strepsiades: The man whose cloak you have taken.

2nd Disciple: (from within). You will destroy us! You will destroy us!

Strepsiades: For I also wish this very thing; unless my mattock deceive my hopes, or I should somehow fall first and break my neck.

Socrates: (from within). Hollo you! What are you doing, pray, you fellow on the roof?

Strepsiades: I am walking on air, and speculating about the sun.

Socrates: Ah me, unhappy! I shall be suffocated, wretched man!

Chaerephon: And I, miserable man, shall be burnt to death!

The quote: Strepsiades: For what has come into your heads that you acted insolently toward the gods, and pried into the seat of the moon?

Hermes: Chase, pelt, smite them, for many reasons, but especially because you know that they offended against the gods!

The thinking shop is burned down.

Chorus: Lead the way out; for we have sufficiently acted as chorus for today.

Exeunt omnes.

Aristophanes, Clouds lines 1490–1510Translated 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
Strepsiades speaking, in Aristophanes’ play.
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