At the elderly age of seventy, Socrates found himself fighting against an indictment of impiety. He was unsuccessful at trial in the year 399 B. C. The charges were corrupting the youth of Athens, not believing in the traditional gods in whom the city believed, and finally, that he believed in other new divinities.
In Platos Apology, Socrates defends himself against these charges. He claims that the jurors opinions are biased because they had probably all seen Aristophanes comedy The Clouds. The Socrates portrayed in Aristophanes Clouds is an altogether different character than that of the Apology. The two different impressions of Socrates lead to opposite opinions with regard to his guilt. In The Clouds, Socrates actions provide evidence of his guilt on all three charges. However, in the Apology, Socrates is fairly convincing in defending his innocence on the first two charges, but falls short on the third charge.
Socrates, in The Clouds, is portrayed as an idiot who thinks he is walking on air and is interested primarily in gnats rumps. He is delineated as a natural philosopher / sophist . He is hired to teach Pheidippides to make the worse argument, the argument that is really incorrect and unjust the better to his fathers creditors so that Strepsiades, Pheidippides father, will not have to pay his debts. While this in itself is corrupt, it was that he changed Pheidippides from the time he entered Socrates Thinkery into a corrupt scoundrel, completely devoid of morality that was even more deplorable. At the beginning, Pheidippides is a respectful son who loves his father, but after graduating from the Thinkery, he is beating his father with a stick (lines 1321-1333). Socrates was so successful in corrupting Pheidippides that he even attempts to justify his behavior using rhetorical techniques learned from Socrates.
In response to his father questioning his actions he claims Yes by God; whats more, Ill prove its right to do so with unbeatable arguments. He has obviously been extremely corrupted if he could talk in this manner to his father. Not believing in the traditional gods, which is the second charge fits the Aristophanic Socrates perfectly. Socrates explicitly frowns upon the gods when he exclaims, what do you mean, the gods? In the first place, gods arent legal tender here (lines 247-248).
Later, when explaining the elements to Strepsiades, Socrates exclaims, Zeus you say? Do not kid me! Theres no Zeus at all (lines 368-369). He is undoubtedly saying that he does not believe in the traditional gods. The claim that Socrates believed in new divinities, the third charge, is clearly seen when he enter (s) into communion with the clouds, who are our deities (lines 253-254). Socrates proves methodically how it could not be Zeus who causes phenomena such as rain, thunder, and lightening, but rather is merely the work of the Clouds. For, if it were indeed the work of Zeus, then he would bring rain in absence of any clouds.
The fact that the clouds are always present during precipitation attests to their power as opposed to that of Zeus. As the Clouds were not traditional gods, Socrates guilt on this charge is rather evident. Even as Socrates is presented as a blabbering fool, full of hubris, in the Clouds, an entirely different perspective on this alleged sophist is given to us in the Apology. Throughout Platos works including the Clouds, Socrates himself claims not to have any wisdom (he did not have any knowledge of arete) so he could not possibly have been a sophist. In terms of the charges, he seems to absolve himself of the first two charges of corrupting the youth of Athens, and not believing in the traditional gods, though he is less convincing in his claim that he has no allegiance to other gods.
Socrates claims he could not possibly be guilty of the first charge for several reasons. He feels the charge arises out of anger towards him for when he applies his Socratic method while questioning others beliefs, it often has the effect of leaving them feeling embarrassed and ridiculed.