need help with riddle

Hi Pup, welcome to A2K.



There is a riddle that was referred to in an ancient Greek play written by Aristophanes, probably "The Clouds".

The riddle is:

"Under it stands, in it begins, that which feels the wind."

The clues are that it was written by Socrates, and that it would help if it was translated back into its original Greek.

When translated into Greek and then back into English it reads:

"under it stands, in him it begins, the one that feels the air."


The only problem with this is:

Socrates (469-399), despite his foundational place in the history of ideas, actually wrote NOTHING. Most of our knowledge of him comes from the works of Plato (427-347).

Socrates wrote nothing because he felt that knowledge was a living, interactive thing. Socrates' method of philosophical inquiry consisted in questioning people on the positions they asserted and working them through questions into a contradiction, thus proving to them that their original assertion was wrong.

Socrates himself never takes a position; in The Apology he radically and sceptically claims to know nothing at all except that he knows nothing.

Therefore ?'It' could be nothing!

it is nothing
hello

is this the answer? this makes much sense. i must come up with the answer quickly. It is part of an inititation. thank you.

the one that feels the wind
nothing?