SOURCE: Rosen, Ralph M. “Cratinus.” In Old Comedy and the Iambographic Tradition, pp. 37-58. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988.

In the following essay, Rosen analyzes how Cratinus, by incorporating into his plays the elements of invective poetry, helped elevate the genre of comedy to a higher stylistic llevel.

The evidence we have examined above suggests that the Athenian comic poets were aware of both the distinguishing poetic features of the Ionian iambos and the appropriateness of these features to their own genre. This awareness, moreover, reflected their realization that the satirical and antagonistic elements of their plays derived from an impulse fundamentally similar to that of the iambic ψόγος. The questions that remain are these: When did the Athenian comic poets begin to exploit the affinities between the two genres? Can it be considered a distinct literary movement within the development of Old Comedy?

If we were left only with the...