Socrates was a pompous man who believed himself wiser than most, if not all, the Athenian men of his time. He is also considered one of the fathers of Western philosophy, his own philosophy revolving around the well-being of the soul and reflecting on what the good life was. An oracle told him that he was the wisest of men and spent a lot of time trying to prove this untrue. He decided that he was considered wise for accepting that he knew nothing and never pretended to know anything that he questioned. In Plato's text "Apology", Socrates is portrayed as an arrogant man, hypercritical of others and set in his ways, regardless of the consequences. He had the qualities of a man who saw no error in what he did because he thought he was above the average man and he thought he was a benefit to society against what others claimed. On the other hand, the portrait of Socrates in the play "Clouds" by Aristophanes is more positive: his character was written with the aim that men would be educated, hoping that anyone could learn if they wished and useful in teaching. He has the makings of a very good teacher to good students, men whose minds were still capable of being instructed, who recognized their lack of knowledge and who had the desire to learn; the sophists took advantage of undermining the superior argument with an inferior argument. In Aristophanes' comedy "The Clouds", Socrates is first introduced to the audience and Strepsiades is suspended above the ground because he claimed it helped him make better discoveries and elevate his notions . (Clouds 230). When Strepsiades was questioned about his presence at the Pondertorium, he told Socrates that he wanted to learn to debate to save him and his family from their debts. With a few more questions he was being initiated...... middle of paper ......of Sophocles seen in both the works of Plato and Aristophanes could not be more different. Although it is known that Aristophanes' Clouds are not a legitimate representation of who Socrates actually was in his life but rather a parody of who he was, it can be assumed that he was a wise man but probably not really locked in a house. with groups of students he was paid to teach. While Aristophanes viewed Socrates as a man of good moral character, in Plato's Apologies we find almost the opposite, where Socrates was portrayed as a man who saw himself with a greater purpose and how he tended to irritate of many Athenians with whom he interacted. . Seeing the differences in the two depictions of Socrates, as well as some of the qualities of the same text that went against the qualities highlighted, shows that the exact way Socrates was in ancient times is also not the same..