Playwright. Died 423 BC. A master of Classical Greek Old Comedy, he did much to define the genre with its no-holds-barred satire, bawdiness and abuse. His late-career rivalry with Aristophanes resulted in his masterpiece, “Pytine” (“The Bottle”, 423 BC), which presented the comic archetype of the dissolute artist. Little is known of Cratinus’ life. He was an Athenian, born to a man named Callimedes, and at some point served in the military as a taxiarch (brigade commander). Claims that he lived to be 97 give him a birthdate of 520 BC; but since his theatrical activity began no earlier than 454 BC (when he would have been 66), this is either an exaggeration or Cratinus was the most extraordinary late bloomer in the history of the arts. For three decades he enjoyed steadily mounting success, peaking in his last dozen or so years, when he won nine prizes for comedy in competition at the City Dionysia and Lenaia festivals. “The Bottle” was his valedictory; he died soon after it was first performed. None of Cratinus’ comedies survive complete. Of his estimated 31 plays we have over 500 fragments, 29 titles, and summaries of “The Bottle” and “Dionysalexandros” (c. 430 BC), enough to give us an idea of their spirit. There are also accounts from contemporaries and ancient historians describing his early innovations and the background of his final phase. Cratinus was credited with introducing political satire and ad hominem attacks in his plays. He lampooned the most important personalities and institutions of his day, “punishing them with Comedy as with a public scourge” as one Hellenistic writer noted. At the height of his popularity he was nicknamed “The Bold”. The great Athenian leader Pericles was a frequent recipient of his bile. It says something that his favorite poet was Archilochus, whose invective against his enemies was so savage it reputedly caused them to commit suicide; one of Cratinus’ earliest plays, “Archilochoi” (c. 448 BC), was a tribute to his hero. The sheer defamatory license of Old Comedy demonstrates Athenian democracy at its most tolerant, though Cratinus and his fellow comedians occasionally pushed things too far and had their licenses revoked. From 440 to 437 BC, politicians succeeded in having comedy prohibited in Athens under the pretext of wartime censorship during the Samian Revolt; once the ban was lifted Cratinus came back unrepentant and stronger than ever. The poetry of his comedies (which, like Greek tragedies, were written in verse) was compared to that of Aeschylus in its stately vigor, and he loved inventing new compound words. He also conjured up imaginative stage effects, having a ship bring in the chorus in “The Odysseuses” (c. 430s BC) and depicting the birth of Helen of Troy from a huge prop egg in “Nemesis” (c. 430s BC). Cratinus had a reputation for drunkenness that was well known to his audience and used against him by his competitors. It was said that even the epitaph on his tomb, outside the city walls of Athens, mentioned his thirst rather than his theatre career. Based on references in the fragments, modern scholars believe this was a stage persona he created, the better to illustrate his devotion to Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility in whose honor the playwrighting festivals were held. This would have been promulgated by  the chorus in his plays, the traditional mouthpiece for  comic authors to brag about themselves or run down others. As we shall see, he made one remarkable exception to this rule. By the 420s BC Cratinus was the eminence grise of Athenian comedy, making him a natural target for a new generation of playwrights. Eupolis and Aristophanes, barely out of their teens, led this group. The cocky Aristophanes crowed about defeating Cratinus at the Lenaia festivals in 425 and 424 BC, the latter with his play “The Knights”, in which he described his elder colleague as “a drivelling old man, wandering about with his crown withered, and so utterly neglected by his former admirers that he could not even procure to quench the thirst of which he was perishing”. Cratinus apparently had no trouble being called a drunk, but an old has-been was another matter. At the City Dionysia in 423 BC, he was ready with his reply: “The Bottle”, a high-spirited romp that poked fun at his inebriated image. The premise has Cratinus (an actor representing the playwright) married to Thalia, the Muse of Comedy, a relationship that humorously implies his superiority among comedians. Thalia wants a divorce because Cratinus is neglecting their bed for a torrid affair with Methe, the spirit of intoxication. Friends try to save the marriage by smashing all the writer’s wine bottles, and when they discover he has booze stashed away in every nook and cranny of his house, Thalia finishes the job with lightning bolts. Cratinus responds by buying a pytine, a strong wicker-covered wine vessel his friends cannot destroy, and an exasperated Thalia hauls him into court. At the trial Cratinus argues that while he may have a mistress, his wife is messing around with all the other comic playwrights in Athens, which gives him the opportunity to insult his professional rivals. He chides Aristophanes for his habit of parodying the tragedies of Euripides – which he calls “Euripidaristophanizing” – asserting that he lacks the imagination to come up with original material. Cratinus then tells the judges he depends on wine for inspiration, declaring in the play’s most famous line, “You’ll never write great poetry if all you drink is water”. The extant synopses unfortunately do not include the ending, but two possible denouments have been suggested: Cratinus repented and returned to his wife, or the court denied the divorce and allowed Cratinus to continue drinking for art’s sake. Even in its fragmentary state “The Bottle” is unique in Ancient Greek theatre. It was nervy and possibly unprecedented for a playwright to present himself as the protagonist of his own play; there are no imitations in antiquity that survive, even though the comedy was performed and studied well into the Roman era. The original Athenian audience certainly loved being in on the joke. “The Bottle” took first prize at the City Dionysia, knocking Aristophanes’ “The Clouds” into third place and ending Cratinus’ long career on a triumphant note. As for  Aristophanes, he will never live down the mocking term Cratinus coined for him. To this day academics use “Euripidaristophanizing” when discussing his Euripidean parodies. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)