아리스토파네스의『구름』에 나타난 희랍교육의 양상

Education of Ancient Athens featured in Aristophanes’ Nephelai

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Aristophanesʼ comedy Nephelai (or the Clouds). The three main subjects of education that have roles in learning and instruction are the relationship among the teacher, student and parents. In Aristophanes’ Nephelai, Strepsiades, the father of Pheidippides, tried to learn “adikos logos,” a rhetorical tool to persuade and deceit people in any subjects. Pitted with a financial crisis, Strepsiades had to throw away his old fashioned living style and ordered his son Pheidippides, who was very much childish and fanatic of horse racing which was a hobby of the rich, to obtain education from Socrates the philosopher. Under the guidance of Socrates, Phedippides became a changed man that was sarcastic and did not believe in hypothetical concepts of gods. The relationship among the teacher, student and parents as seen in Socrates, Pheidippides, and Strepsiades, shed light onto the model of education in ancient Athens. These teachings from great Greek philosophers who tried to save the demolished polis by means of education may be able to be used as a model to consult for the reform of current education.