The Classical Leisure from the Cloud

The Clouds, straddling the lines drawn by Aristotle between comedy and drama in the Poetics, is actually a metaphor for the folly of mankind before the majesty of the Cosmos; all characters, including Socrates, have pride and vanities; all are flawed, and the lampoon is against human weakness itself, which provides the comic aspect of the play. The metaphor of the oven mirrors in the world of men the Clouds. The Clouds exist beyond the world of men in the play, and are the "truth" Aristophanes is brillianly expounding - we recall Chaerophon's complaint at the end that "It is hot in here, like an oven [sic]" - the Oven, fueled by the Clouds, is the "test" that mankind must pass through (for in the play all of society is being tested, and fails); the Clouds are the catalyst of the test.

Incidentally, we notice several references in the play to esoteric knowledges (Strepsiades, in dsetroying the Academy, goes on to mock Socrates for "looking to the moon," which had been referenced earlier as one of the characters complained about Athens' calendar being innacurate in regards to the New Moon); Aristophanes would have been aware of these things, and was likely mocking the hypocrisy of the various circles of Athens, especially those who claimed to be "initiated" into deeper mysteries, which Aristophanes is demonstrating to be mere folly in comparison to the reality of these mysteries, namely, the Clouds and the Universe itself.

Thus, the play can be seen as being a Cave of caves, an allegory comparable to the Cave in Plato's Republic, but transcending it.