rned from Socrates. In response to his father questioning his actions he claims “Yes by God; what’s more, I’ll prove it’s right to do so…with unbeatable arguments.” He has obviously been extremely corrupted if he could talk in this manner to his father. Not believing in the traditional gods, which is the second charge fits the Aristophanic Socrates perfectly. Socrates explicitly frowns upon the gods when he exclaims, “what do you mean, ‘the gods’? In the first place, gods aren’t legal tender here” (lines 247-248). Later, when explaining the elements to Strepsiades, Socrates exclaims “Zeus you say? Don’t kid me! There’s no Zeus at all” (lines 368-369). He is undoubtedly saying that he does not believe in the traditional gods. The claim that Socrates believed in new divinities, the third charge, is clearly seen when he “enter (s) into communion with the clouds, who are our deities” (lines 253-254). Socrates proves methodically how it could not be Zeus who causes phenomena such as rain, thunder, and lightening, but rather is merely the work of the Clouds. For, if it were indeed the work of Zeus, then he would bring rain in absence of any clouds. The fact that the clouds are always present during precipitation attests to their power as opposed to that of Zeus. As the Clouds were not traditional gods, Socrates’ guilt on this charge is rather evident. Even as Socrates is presented as a blabbering fool, full of hubris, in the Clouds, an entirely different perspective on this alleged sophist is given to us in the Apology. Throughout Plato’s works including the Clouds, Socrates himself claims not to have any wisdom (he did not have any knowledge of ‘arete’) so he could not possibly have been a sophist. In terms of the charges he seems to absolve himself of the first two charges of corrupting the youth of Athens, and not b...
