Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. The Changing Role of Logos: Background -- 2. Setting the Scene: Lines 1-132 -- 3. Meeting the Wise Souls and Their Gods: Lines 133-313 -- 4. Martial Speech, Fluid Shapes, Thunderous Sounds: Lines 314-509 -- 5. Aristophanes' Failures-The Parabasis: Lines 510-626 -- 6. Strepsiades' Failures: Lines 627-888 -- 7. The Debate of the Logoi-The Agon: Lines 889-1112 -- 8. The Triumph of Practical Sophistry: Lines 1113-1302 -- 9. Comic Justice: Lines 1303-1510 -- Conclusion: Our Innovative, Democratic Clouds -- Appendix: The Clouds' Two Versions -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index of Passages -- A -- C -- E -- H -- L -- P -- T -- X -- Subject Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- Z.

This is an intelligent and unusually thought-provoking reading of Aristophanes' Clouds. O'Regan focuses on logos, or the power of argument, and its effects, and on the self-awareness of the second Clouds as a comedy of logos directed toward an audience made resistant by devotion to the body. Within and without the play, logos meets defeat when confronted with human nature and desire. The argument conveys much insight into fifth-century thought and the play's workings, the more so because it balances rhetoric with comedy, and reminds the reader that this is a comic logos--explored in the comic mode, and connected with the intentions and vicissitudes of the first and second Clouds.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.