The ambiguities surrounding what is called the Socratic Problem are reinforced by the fact that while Old Comedy has preserved a record of the philosopher which is contemporary, it also seems unsympathetic, whereas the testimony which treats him seriously and is also friendly to him is entirely posthumous. To be sure, the posthumous record is itself not consistent. The ‘portraits’ offered by Plato and Xenophon, and the doxographical notices in Aristotle, have received varying estimates in terms of their evidential worth. But scholarly differences in this area of the testimony can be accommodated and compromised, and in recent accounts they usually are. A more challenging division in critical opinion separates all those who have preferred the idealized versions of either Plato or Xenophon and the accommodation built upon them, from those who have looked for possible clues in the cruder testimonies publicized in the philosopher's life-time.

The Socratic Problem is today quiescent. It has perhaps been given up as insoluble. The prevailing scholarly preference is clearly oriented towards Plato's authority, even though the extreme case for this preference has been rejected. The Clouds viewed as a possible source of independent testimony fails to obtain serious consideration.

The present essay, while reviving the claims of the Clouds to some authenticity of record, does not aim to choose between contemporary and posthumous testimony, but rather to match the two, if perchance some congruities may become percepitible.