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διὰ τοὺς ἵππους τοὺς κοππατίας καὶ τὸν γάμον ὅς μʼ ἐπέτριψεν.
The phrase τοὺς ἵππους τοὺς κοππατίας is a specific, satirical reference to the 'Koppas' horses, a notorious group of young Athenian aristocrats (including the son of the poet Sophocles, Sophocles the Younger, and others) who rode in the procession of the Panathenaia but were known for their extravagant, ostentatious behavior and association with the 'new education' (sophistry). The term κοππατίας is a rare, comic coinage, likely derived from κόππος (a type of horse or a slang term for a horseman), used here to mock their pretension and the specific social faction they represented. This is not a generic reference to horses but a pointed allusion to the political and cultural tensions of the late 5th century BCE regarding the education of the youth and the influence of the sophists, a central theme in the play's critique of Socrates and the 'new learning.'
Clouds. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.