Cratinus (c. 520-423 BC)

Greek comic dramatist, predecessor of Aristophanes. He wrote 21 comedies, such as Putine/The Bottle, but only fragments of his work survive. He is credited with various improvements in the arrangement of the chorus and in Greek comedy generally, and is said to have been the first to make comedy an instrument of personal satire. He himself used it as a vehicle for audacious sarcasm, directed in at least three plays against Pericles.