Cratinus

Playwright

Born: Date unknown; place unknown Died: c. 420 b. c.e.; place unknown Also known as: Kratinos Category: Theater and drama

Life Cratinus (kruh-TI-nuhs) produced comedies successfully for some thirty years, from the 450’s to the 420’s b. c.e. More than twenty of his plays are known and numerous fragments exist, but there are no complete plays and no fragments of more than ten complete consecutive lines. An ancient summary of the Dionysus Alexander reveals that the play spoofed the origin of the Trojan War. A clowning Dionysus takes the place of Paris (also known as Alexander) to kidnap Helen and consequently start the Trojan War. Another play, Nemesis, told a silly version of the birth of Helen. Besides the mythological travesty, these plays satirized prominent Athenians of the day, most notably Pericles. Cratinus earned a reputation as avi-cious satirist, although he was capable ofproducing apolitical comedy such as the Odysseuses, which parodied the Cyclops episode from Homer’s Odyssey (c. 725 b. c.e.; English translation, 1614). In his later years, Cratinus was mocked by Aristophanes as a washed-up drunk. Cratinus retaliated in 423 b. c.e. with Pytine (The Bottle), in which he staged his own rejection of alcoholism in favor of his allegorical wife, Comedy. He resoundingly beat Aristophanes in competition with the play, and this competition is the last known activity of Cratinus.

Influence Cratinus was the earliest of the great triad of comedians of Old Comedy, along with Aristophanes and Eupolis. He is credited with establishing the vitality and characteristics of the genre.

Further Reading

Heath, Malcom. “Aristophanes and His Rivals.” Greece & Rome 37 (October, 1990): 143-158.

Kassel, R., and C. Austin. Poetae Comici Graeci. Vol. 4. Berlin: Walter de Gmyter, 1983.

Norwood, Gilbert. Greek Comedy. London: Methuen, 1931.

Rosen, Ralph Mark. Old Comedy and the lambographic Tradition. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988.

Rufell, Ian. “A Total Write-Off: Aristophanes, Cratinus, and the Rhetoric of Comic Competition.” Classical Quarterly 52, no. 1 (2002): 138.

Sommerstein, Alan H. Greek Drama and Dramatists. New York: Rout-ledge, 2002.

Wilfred E. Major

See also: Aristophanes; Crates of Athens; Eupolis; Homer; Performing

Arts; Pericles; Sports and Entertainment; Troy.