Kratinos

Kratinos (* around 520 BC; † 423 BC ) was a Greek comedy poet and contemporary of Aristophanes .

Together with Eupolis and Aristophanes, Kratinos was one of the three most important representatives of ancient Greek comedy (486–400 BC). Presumably he introduced the "three-man rule", which states that three actors should be on stage when a comedy is being performed. This regulation was probably not binding if you B. considered the works of his more famous contemporary and competitor Aristophanes, in whom the number of actors varied.

Kratinos' first victory at Dionysia is in 457 BC. Chr. Handed down. He won a total of six times at this festival and three times at the Lenées . In his plays he attacked Pericles and his wife Aspasia sharply.

Kratinos is best known today because of a competition with Aristophanes at the Dionysia of 423 BC. After Aristophanes had him perform the previous year in his comedy Die Ritter im Prolog as an old drunk who admits that he no longer understands his work (Kratinos was really taken with wine throughout his life, see his quotes) , decided Kratinos, who was considered the "old master" of comedy because of his numerous victories at the Dionysia, to write another work himself and at the Dionysia in 423 BC. To take up direct competition with the mocking youth Aristophanes, to prove that he was still able to come up with good comedies.

In contrast to Aristophanes, Kratinos did not bring any contemporaries onto the stage in The Bottle ( Pytine ), rather he resorted to his own person and presented himself as a drunkard who was married to the comedy itself in his work. Kommedia ("the comedy") accuses her husband Kratinos of spending too much time with his lover "The Bottle" and therefore no longer fulfills his marital duties, i.e. no longer making little "comedies" with her, and therefore demands the divorce, until Kratinos shows that he is definitely still in love with her and also shows his sense of duty. Kratinos won Dionysia with this piece, to the annoyance of Aristophanes, who only took third place with his piece The Clouds .

From Kratinos to this day - like most of the other poets of the Archaia - only a few fragments and no whole pieces have survived. More than 450 fragments are known, which belonged to at least 28 titles.

A poet of the same name at the time of the Middle Comedy was perhaps a descendant of the older Kratinos.

literature

• Bernhard Zimmermann : Kratinos . In: Bernhard Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Greek literature of antiquity , Volume 1: The literature of the archaic and classical times . CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-57673-7 , pp. 718-730.