Education in the city through laughter and tears: sophistic speeches in Euripides' “Medea” and Aristophanes' “Clouds”

Abstract

During the time of Euripides and Aristophanes, innovative pedagogical ideas were discussed in an equally innovative man-ner. The intellectuals of that era played a significant role in cre-ating an ironic pedagogical triangle consisting of Euripides, Aris-tophanes, Socrates, and the sophists in classical Athens. Employ-ing tragedy and comedy in varying degrees, Euripides and Aris-tophanes drew attention to the contrast between traditional and sophistic education, portraying it as a complex problem that could not be easily resolved by an average person. A comparative historical and pedagogical analysis of Euripides' tragedy “Me-dea” and Aristophanes' comedy “Clouds” revealed another direc-tion for studying the possibilities of mutual penetration of gen-res. Through the depiction of families with children who were divided into speakers and listeners in the spatial coordinates of the city and home, Euripides and Aristophanes participated in the ongoing debate regarding Socrates and the sophists. Euripides and Aristophanes include in their works agons between the advo-cates of just (non-sophistic) and unjust (sophistic) speeches, which touch upon educational issues. The main characters lose in these agons and realize that their problems cannot be solved even when they use sophistic techniques. This comprehension compels them to transition from words to actions, resorting to criminal acts to demonstrate the perilous consequences of sophistic educa-tion to the polis. A simultaneous historical and pedagogical anal-ysis of Euripides' tragedy “Medea” and Aristophanes' comedy “Clouds” is accompanied by references to other works of Euripi-des and Aristophanes, as well as by Plato and Xenophon, which contain explicit or implicit references to the teaching methods of Socrates and / or the sophists.