How did Aristophanes portray Socrates in the comedy Clouds?

In the comedy Clouds, Aristophanes portrays Socrates as a radical intellectual and the head of a school called the Phrontisterion, or "Thinking Shop." The play unfairly attributes to him many characteristics of the Sophists, depicting him as a teacher who charges fees to instruct students in rhetorical tricks used to "make the worse into the stronger argument."123

In this caricature, Socrates is shown "walking on air," investigating empirical phenomena, and treating clouds and air as divine substances while denying traditional gods. A central theme is the corruption of the youth; the play follows a man named Strepsiades who enrolls his son, Pheidippides, in the school to learn how to evade debts. The instruction proves so effective that the son eventually uses his argumentative skills to justify beating his own father. The play concludes with Strepsiades burning down the school in retaliation. Socrates later cited this play as a primary source of the public distrust and false accusations that contributed to his eventual trial.14235