  The Stephani universes that can be interpreted as an ideal gas evolving in
local thermal equilibrium are determined. Five classes of thermodynamic schemes
are admissible, which give rise to five classes of regular models and three
classes of singular models. No Stephani universes exist representing an exact
solution to a classical ideal gas (one for which the internal energy is
proportional to the temperature). But some Stephani universes may approximate a
classical ideal gas at first order in the temperature: all of them are
obtained. Finally, some features about the physical behavior of the models are
pointed out.
