The Clouds

The play, set in Athens, opens with two men sleeping in their beds. One is sleeping soundly, but the other tosses and turns until he sits up and speaks. In an introductory monologue, he identifies himself as Strepsiades. He explains that he can’t sleep because he is tormented by thoughts of the debts racked up by his son Pheidippides, the man sleeping in the bed next to his. Pheidippides’s passion for horses and horse racing, encouraged by his mother, threatens to bankrupt Strepsiades.

Strepsiades orders a slave to bring him his account books and reviews them disconsolately, grumbling animatedly about his wife and Pheidippides. He lights upon an idea to escape his debts and wakes up Pheidippides, asking him to do him a favor. Pheidippides promises to do so, and Strepsiades reveals what he wants: for Pheidippides to enroll in the Thinkery, a school where one can learn “to win a case whether you’re in the right or not” (98-99). This way, Pheidippides can learn how Strepsiades can avoid paying his debts.

Pheidippides is disgusted by the idea. No self-respecting young Athenian would become involved with the Thinkery and the heads of the school,