Plato And Aristophanes: A Literary Analysis

In order to discern the personas of Socrates, one can create an image of him and his scope using the works of Aristophanes and Plato; specifically Clouds, Ion and The Republic. Even though Socrates’ thoughts and ideas were never personally composed, one can dissect the works of these authors in order to adequately gain an understanding of Socrates’ convictions as a philosopher. There is a solid distinction between the two authors; Plato wrote mostly philosophical dialogues, whereas Aristophanes was a comedic playwright. It is also worth mentioning that Plato was a student of Socrates and did not write about his ideas until after he expired, prior to that, Aristophanes was ridiculing him hilariously while he was still alive. In order to differentiate the context in which Socrates is brought to life in any of their writings, it is important to remember these details when thinking about their possible motives regarding his portrayal. It’s safe to say the both authors display Socrates in his …show more content…
When discussing the education of men and women, it is stated that “They ought to do everything together” which before continuing seems so progressive for ancient Greek literature, but then it goes on “except that we treat the males as stronger and the females as weaker” (The Republic, Book V, 449D-453A). Socrates then goes on to talk about how ridiculous the sight would be to see women participating in gymnastics wrestling with men while both in the nude (one is supposed to assume most or all sport took place in the nude in ancient Greece). So it becomes clear as to how one should interpret his character 's view on women; perhaps not as conservative as those around him in ancient Greece but prejudicial nonetheless. In Clouds, women are on the backburner, rarely mentioned if at all by Socrates; femininity is spoken about in the use of language