Join us Tuesday, Oct. 14, in the Gund Gallery, Community Foundation Theater at 4:15 p.m. for a lecture with D. David Williams, "Nature, Science, and Divinity in Aristophanes' 'Clouds.'"
By the end of the fifth century BCE, the Athenian public had become deeply suspicious about the religious attitudes of intellectuals who were engaged in the scientific investigation of the natural world. This suspicion contributed to the public persecution of important thinkers such as Anaxagoras, Protagoras and, most famously, Socrates, all of whom were deemed impious. Aristophanes’ comedy Clouds, in which the activities of such intellectuals are mocked and ultimately condemned, is perhaps the single most important text for understanding the felt tension between religion and science in Classical Athens. In this talk, I will explore Aristophanes’ critical stance toward the scientific investigation into nature. I will focus on how the play engages with new, philosophical ways of understanding the relationship between the gods, the natural world, and humans.
Sponsored by the Department of Classics, the Department of Political Science, the Faculty Lectureships Fund, and the Robert O. Fink Lecture Fund.