Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/451

429 LlTERATtfitE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 429 of Cratinus : — " Who art thou, thou hair-splitting orator ; thou hmiler after sentences; thou petty Euripidaristophanes ?" * Even the names of his choruses show, to a certain extent, on what various and bold devices the poems of Cratinus were based. He not only made up a chorus of mere Archilochuses and Cleobulines, i. e. of abusive slanderers and gossiping women ; he also brought on a number of Ulysseses and Chirons as a chorus, and even Panopteses, i. e. beings like the Argos-Panoptes of mythology, who had heads turned both ways with innumerable eyes,t by which, according to an ingenious explanation, J he intended to represent the scholars of Hippo, a specu- lative philosopher of the day, whose followers pretended that nothing in heaven or earth remained concealed from them. Even the riches (-rXowrot) and the laws (i>d/uot) of Athens formed choruses in the plays of Cratinus, as, in general, Attic comedy took the liberty of personifying whatever it pleased. The play of Cratinus, with the plot of which we are best acquainted, is the Pyline, or "bottle," which he wrote in the last year of his life. In his later years Cratinus was undoubtedly much given to drinking, and Aristophanes and the other comedians were already sneering at him as a doting old man, whose poetry was fuddled with wine. Upon this the old comedian suddenly roused himself, and with such vigour and success that he won the prize, in 01. 89, 1. b.c. 423, from all his rivals, including Aristophanes, who brought out the "Clouds" on the occasion. The piece which Cratinus thus produced was the Pytinc. With mag- nanimous candour the poet made himself the subject of his own comedy. The comic muse was represented as the lawful wife of Cratinus, as the faithful partner of his younger days, and she complained bitterly of the neglect with which she was then treated in consequence of her husband having become attached to another lady, the bottle. She goes to the Archons, and brings a plaint of criminal neglect (kaKwcrig) against him ; if her husband will not return to her she is to obtain a divorce from him. The consequence is, that the poet returns to his senses, and his old love is re-awakened in his bosom ; and at the end he raises himself up in all the power and beauty of his poetical genius, and goes so far in the drama that his friends try to stop his mouth, lest he should carry away everything with the overflowing of his imagery and versifi- cation. § In this piece, Cratinus did not merit the reproacli which has been generally cast upon him, that he could not work out his own excellent conceptions, but, as it were, destroyed them himself. 'tfoXiTroXoyoi, yvojfAiOiuTn;, li/giTidxfiitrroipxvi^av" The answer of Aristophanes is mentioned above, Chap. XXV., § 7. f Kptivia liaaa. tyooCiv, o$$&Xfio) V ovk uorfpardr X Bcrgk de reliquiis Comedies Attica antiques, p. 162. § Cratini fragmenta coll. Runkel, p. 50. Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Grac, vol. I. p. 54, vol. II. p. 110—132.
 * T/f 2s cii (x.o[i.^i>i ri; iooith hary;i)