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Cratinus (Greek Κράτινος, ca. 520 BC- after 423 BC), Athenian comic poet.

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). According to the Suda (test. 1. 2–3), he wrote 21 comedies. He was still competing in 423, when his Wineflask took the prize at the City Dionysia; he died shortly thereafter, at a very advanced age (test. 3). 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. That he was related to the 4th-century comic poet Cratinus Junior is a reasonable hypothesis but cannot be proven. 514 fragments (including ten dubia) of his comedies survive, along with 29 titles: Archilochuses, Cowherds, Bousiris, Women From Delos, Dramatic Productions, Dionysalexandros, Dionysuses, Runaway Women, Men On Fire (probably an alternative title for Idaeans) Eumenides, Euneidans, Women From Thrace, Idaeans, Cleoboulinas, Spartans, Soft Men, Nemesis. Laws, Odysseuses, Men Who See Everything, Gods of Wealth, The Meeting At Pylae, The Wineflask (City Dionysia 423; 1st), Satyrs (Lenaia 424; 2nd), Men From Seriphus, Trophonius, The Storm-Tossed (Lenaia 425; 2nd), Cheirons, and Seasons.

Some of the plot of one of his final comedy, Wineflask, has come down to us. In the play, Cratinus good-humouredly making fun of his own supposed weakness for wine, representing the comic muse as his own wife, who has grown tired of his bad behavior and demands a divorce.

The style of Cratinus has been likened to that of Aeschylus; and Aristophanes, in the Knights, compares him to a rushing torrent. 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.

The standard edition of the fragments and testimonia is in Kassel-Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci IV; Kock numbers are now outdated and should not be used.