Sophists and Their Criticism in Aristophanes Thought

Abstract

Aristophanes is a founding playwright of ancient comedy. In his comedies, he acts as a political commentator who questions the social and political problems of the Athens polis. He often longs for earlier periods when Athens lived in prosperity and peace and criticises what he perceives as the corruption of Athenian democracy. Through his plays, Aristophanes criticises the polis and opposes many new developments that he believes threaten its traditional order. This stance gives Aristophanes a conservative character. His strong attachment to the old order and distrust of new intellectual trends lead him to interpret the changing realities of Athens in a reactionary way. In his comedies, he turns people, ideas, and practices that he considers corrupting influences on the polis into targets of satire. Using irony, humour, and sometimes harsh language, he criticises figures associated with intellectual and political change. Among the main targets of his criticism are the Sophists and their human-centred approach to knowledge. Political leaders such as Pericles and Cleon, philosophers such as Socrates and Gorgias, and the tragedian Euripides appear in his works as figures connected to sophistic thought. At the centre of Aristophanes’ criticism is the Sophists’ rhetorical art based on relativism. In his comedies, Sophists are portrayed as paid teachers who manipulate language, corrupt the polis, and investigate strange natural phenomena. Through such depictions, Aristophanes presents them as figures who deviate from traditional Greek moderation and become partially alienated from the polis.