CRATES

This article was originally published in Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume VII. Anonymous. Cambridge: University Press, 1910. p. 381.

CRATES, Athenian actor and author of comedies, flourished about 470 B.C. He was regarded as the founder of Greek comedy proper, since he abandoned political lampoons on individuals, and introduced more general subjects and a well-developed plot (Aristotle, Poetica, 5). He is stated to have been the first to represent the drunkard on the stage. (Aristophanes, Knights, 37 ff.).

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