Recording of a lecture delivered on November 15, 2024, by Stephanie Nelson as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Professor Nelson offers this introduction to her lecture: It is not too much of a stretch to say that Aristophanes’ Clouds is primarily about two topics: logos and the gods – and about Socrates’ relation to them both. Aristophanes, in his most serious playful manner, challenges us to think about who gets to be a god, and even, this lecture will suggest, proposes the Logoi as the real gods of human experience. The play thus asks us to consider both the nature of gods and the nature of logos, and in so doing juxtaposes the way that Socrates views the relation of logos and reality to the way the comic poet sees the same question.