Aristophanes and first performed at the City Dionysia in 423 BC, the philosopher Socrates declares that the Clouds are the only true deities and tells the main character Strepsiades not to worship any deities other than the Clouds, but to pay homage to them alone. In the play, the Clouds change shape to reveal the true nature of whoever is looking at them, turning into centaurs at the sight of a long-haired politician, wolves at the sight of the embezzler Simon, deer at the sight of the coward Cleonymus, and mortal women at the sight of the effeminate informer Cleisthenes. They are hailed the source of inspiration to comic poets and philosophers; they are masters of rhetoric, regarding eloquence and sophistry alike as their "friends". In China, clouds are symbols of luck and happiness. Overlapping clouds (in meteorology, probably duplicatus clouds) are thought to imply eternal happiness and clouds of different colors are said to indicate "multiplied blessings". Informal cloud watching or cloud gazing is a popular children's activity involving watching the clouds and looking for shapes in them, a form of pareidolia. See also Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) (US) Bioprecipitation Ceiling Cloud albedo Cloud Appreciation Society Cloud cover Cloud forcing Cloud seeding Clouds (sculpture) Cloudscape (art) Cloudscape photography Coalescence Extraterrestrial sky Fog Mist Mushroom cloud Pileus (meteorology) Precipitation Sunshine duration Undulatus asperatus Weather lore References Bibliography External links Current global map of total cloud water Monthly maps of global cloud cover, from NASA's Earth Observatory World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) International Cloud Atlas International Cloud Atlas Articles containing video clips Clouds, fog and precipitation