A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Φερεκράτης). of Athens, was one of the best poets of the Old Comedy (Anon. de Corn. p. xxviii.). He was contemporary with the comic poets Cratinus, Crates, Eupolis, Plato, and Aristophanes (Suid. s. v. Πλάτων), being somewhat younger than the first two, and somewhat older than the others. One of the most important testimonies respecting him is evidently corrupted, but can be amended very well; it is as follows (Anon. de Com. p. xxix) :--Φερεκράτης Ἀθηναῖος νικᾷ ἐπὶ θεάτρου γινόμενος, ὁ δὲ ὑποκριτὴς ἐξήλωκε Κράτητα. Καὶ αὖ τοῦ μὲν λοιδορεῖν ἀπέστη, πράγματα δὲ εἰσηγούμενος καινὰ ηὐδοκίμει γενόμενος εὑρετικὸς μύθων. Dobree corrects the passage thus : --Φ.Α. νικᾷ ἐπὶ Θεοδώρου, γενόμενος δὲ ὑποκριτὴς ἐζήλωκε Κράτητα, κ.τ.λ. ; and his emendation is approved by Meineke and others of our best critical scholars. From the passage, thus read, we learn that Pherecrates gained his first victory in the archonship of Theodorus, B. C. 438; and that he imitated the style of Crates, whose actor he had been. From the latter part of the quotation, and from an important passage in Aristotle (Aristot. Poet. 5) we see what was the character of the alteration in comedy, commenced by Crates, and carried on by Pherecrates; namely, that they very much modified the coarse satire and vituperation of which this sort of poetry had previously been the vehicle (whatt Aristotle calls ἡ ἰαμβικὴ ἰδέα), and constructed their comedies on the basis of a regular plot, and with more dramatic action. [*](* Dindorf reads ὑπόπικρος for ὑποκριτὴς in the above passage. This makes no real difference in the meaning, except with reference to Pherecrates having been an actor for Crates. The correction seems arbitrary, and moreover unnecessary, as it expresses somewhat obscurely what is clearly stated in the next clause.) Pherecrates did not, however, abstain altogether from personal satire, for we see by the fragments of his plays that he attacked Alcibiades, the tragic poet Melanthius, and others (Ath. viii. p. 343c., xii. p. 538b. ; Phot. Lex. p. 626, 10). But still, as the fragments also show, his chief characteristics were, ingenuity in his plots and elegance in diction : hence he is called Ἀττικώτατος (Ath. vi. p. 268e; Steph. Byz. p. 43; Suid. s.v. Ἀθηναία). His language is not, however, so severely pure as that of Aristophanes and other comic poets of the age, as Meineke shows by several examples.

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