Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

The Clouds personified in Cult and Myth 69

of copying the fleecy clouds1. Such a usage goes some way towards
explaining another drama of exceptional brilliance2, the Clouds of
Aristophanes; for he, in common with all the writers of old Attic
comedy, was largely indebted for his choruses to the mimetic dances
of the past3. The Clouds, however, to whom the Aristophanic
Sokrates would introduce his elderly pupil and initiate, Strepsiades,
are not mere masses of vapour that the magician can coax into
sending a shower, but rather august, and indeed divine, personifications
of the same:

Old man sit you still, and attend to my will, and hearken in peace to my
prayer,

O Master and King, holding earth in your swing, O measureless infinite
Air;

And thou glowing Ether, and Clouds who enwreathe her with thunder, and

lightning, and storms,
Arise ye and shine, bright Ladies Divine, to your student in bodily forms4.

Sokrates speaks of them as 'our deities5,' and again as 'heavenly
Clouds, great goddesses8.' Strepsiades, taking his cue, salutes them

1 Supra p. 31 f.

2 When first exhibited at the Dionysia of 423 B.C. the Ne0Acu of Aristophanes gained
only the third prize, being beaten by the YIvtIvh] of Kratinos and the KWos of Ameipsias—
a judgment hard to understand. We have the play in part rewritten, a second edition
which was never staged (W. Christ Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur6 Mtinchen
1912 i. 422 f.), being either 'composed to be read and not to be acted' (B. B. Rogers in his
ed. 1916 p. xii), or planned for performance some time after 421 B.C. (G. M. Boiling 'The
two recensions of The Clouds' in Class. Philol. 1920 XV. 83 ff., reported in the Berl.
philol. Woch.Juli 30, 1921 p. 736).

3 So at least I have argued in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 163 ff. Note that the
choreutai impersonating the Clouds are likened to spread fleeces [nub. 343 d^acrLv yovv
eploto-iv ireiTTanivoim). Why attention is drawn to their noses (16. 344 avrai 8e pTvas
£x°"<''"')> 's riot quite clear. The schol. ad loc. says elaikt\\idaai yap oi tov x°P°v
Trpoawirela TtepiKtip-evoi p.eyd\as i%0VTa pivas /cat aXXws YeXoia Kai acrxniJ-ova. The sequel
(nub. 346 ff.) of course shows that the Greeks, like other children, formed fancy-pictures
in the sky and took the clouds to be a Centaur, a leopard, a wolf, a bull—in fact, as
Lowell puts it, 'Insisted all the world should see | camels or whales where none there
be !' But that is hardly the import of fives. I should rather suppose that the Nephelai
are entirely wrapped in fleeces except for their nostrils. Cp. the use of ve</>i\tt in Greek
(Hesych. s.v. </>apij) and nebula in Latin (De Vit Lat. Lex. s.v. 'nebula' § 9) for a thin,
flowing garment, or of 'cloud' in English for a voluminous woollen scarf (J. A. H.
Murray A New English Dictionary Oxford 1893 ii. 526 s.v. 'Cloud' § 8).

4 Aristoph. nub. 263 ff. trans. B. B. Rogers -U. evtp-qixe'iv \pi] tov irpta^vTt)v Kai rrjs
eiXV* iiraKoueip. | <! S^awor' 6,va£, ap-trpTrr' ' A-qp, Ss ^Xets "I" IV" Hert'wpov, | \a^irp6s r
Aldrip, ce/vtai re deal Ne0Acu ppovTrjaiKipavvoi, \ &p8r/Te, (pavrjr , w htairoivai, Tif
<ppovTiorri piertwpOL.

6 Id. ib. 252 f. £Q. Kai £vyytv{(r$ai rais Se<pe\aicnv es \6yovi, \ rais yfieTipawi
haifioo-iv;

0 Id. ib. 315 f. 2T. fubv i)pi#val rivis eiaiv; | Sfi. rfKiar', dXX' oipdviai Xe0Aai, ^E7<xXai
8eai dvopdaiv apyois.