Cratinus

Cratinus (Greek ????????, 519 BC - 422 BC), Athenian comic poet of the Old Comedy. Cratinus was regarded as one of the three great masters of Athenian Old Comedy (the others being Aristophanes and Eupolis), although his poetry is several times described as relatively graceless, harsh, and crudely abusive (test. 17; 19); his plays continued to be read and studied in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. He wrote 21 comedies. 514 fragments (including ten dubia) of his comedies survive, along with 29 titles. His most famous play is the Pytine. http://www.peerie.com/Writing/7880/Cratinus/

**Cratinus** ([|Greek] **Κρᾰτῖνος**, 519 BC - 422 BC), [|Athenian] comic [|poet] of the [|Old Comedy].

Life
Cratinus was victorious six times at the [|City Dionysia], first probably in the mid- to late 450s BCE (IG II2 2325. 50), and three times at the [|Lenaia], first probably in the early 430s (IG II2 2325. 121; just before [|Pherecrates] and [|Hermippus]). He was still competing in 423, when his //Pytine// took the prize at the City Dionysia; he died shortly thereafter, at a very advanced age, about 97 years (test. 3).

Little is known of his personal history. His father's name was Callimedes, and he himself was a taxiarch. The //[|Suda]// has brought several accusations against Cratinus. First, it accuses Cratinus of excessive cowardice. Secondly, a charge against the moral character. Thirdly, a charge of habitual intemperance. Having examined all these charges, it may be safe to say that all of these charges are unlikely enough to be true, and that there is no evidence that Cratinus really commited such things. Moreover, other writers, including [|Aristophanes], were silent on these charges, except the third charge, which is sustained by many passages of [|Aristophanes] and other writers. They also refer the "Confession of Cratinus", which Cratinus himself seems to have treated the subject in a very amusing way, especially in his //Pytine//.

That he was related to the 4th-century comic poet [|Cratinus Junior] is a reasonable hypothesis but cannot be proven.

Works
Cratinus was regarded as one of the three great masters of Athenian [|Old Comedy] (the others being [|Aristophanes] and [|Eupolis]), although his poetry is several times described as relatively graceless, harsh, and crudely abusive (test. 17; 19); his plays continued to be read and studied in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. He wrote 21 comedies. 514 fragments (including ten dubia) of his comedies survive, along with 29 titles. His most famous play is the //Pytine//.

Pytine
The //Pytine// was Cratinus' most famous play. A grammarian describe the background of the play as follows: In 424 BC, [|Aristophanes] produced [|The Knights], in which he described Cratinus "as an drivelling old man, wandering about with his crown withered, and so uttered neclected that by his former admirers that he could not even procure to quench the thirst of which he was perishing" Soon after that play, Cratinus responded by producing a play called //Pytine// (The Wineflask) in 423 BC, which defeated //Connus// of Ameipsias and [|The Clouds] of Aristophanes, which was produced in the same year.

Plot
The plot of the play is as follows. Cratinus saw young wines and follows them, and his wife Comedy, took him to court because she believed the young poet has betrayed her, that is, play instead with the young wines (One of the young wines in the play is Mendaios, a very popular type of Ancient Greek wine. Curiously, Mendaios is personified in ther play). Cratinus argues that it was necessary for him to drink wine, because poets drinking only water are not able to write good plays. But some people who does not like his drinking decided to destroy his wine-containers. The play ends with the court saying he are allowed to continue drinking.

Other Plays
In Grenfell and Hunt's //Oxyrhynchus Papyri//, iv. (1904), containing a further instalment of their edition of the //Behnesa papyri// discovered by them in [|1896]-[|1897], one of the greatest curiosities is a scrap of paper bearing the argument of a play by Cratinus, the //Dionysalexandros// (i.e. [|Dionysus] in the part of [|Paris]), aimed against [|Pericles]; and the [|epitome] reveals something of its wit and point. Other plays of Cratinus include
 * Archilochoi, "Archilochuses"(c. 448 BC)
 * Boukoloi ("Bousiris")
 * Deliades ("Women From Delos")
 * Dedaskaliai
 * Drametides ("Dramatic Productions")
 * Empipramenoi or Idaioi ("Men On Fire" or "Idaeans")
 * Euneidai
 * Thrattai ("Women From Thrace")
 * Kleoboulinai
 * Lakones
 * Malthakoi
 * Nemesis
 * Nomoi
 * Odysseis ("Odysseuses")
 * Panoptai
 * Pylaia ("The Meeting At Pylae")
 * Ploutoi ("The Gods of Wealth")
 * Satyroi ("Satyrs")
 * Seriphioi ("Men From Seriphus")
 * Trophonios ("[|Trophonius]")
 * Cheimazomenoi

462 fragments of Cratinus survive.

Style
The style of Cratinus has been likened to that of [|Aeschylus]. He appears to have been fond of lofty diction and bold figures, and was most successful in the lyrical parts of his dramas, his choruses being the popular festal songs of his day. According to the statement of a doubtful authority, not borne out by [|Aristotle], Cratinus increased the number of actors in comedy to three.

Standard Edition
The standard edition of the fragments and testimonia is in Kassel-Austin, //Poetae Comici Graeci// IV; Kock numbers are now outdated and should not be used.