Crates of Athens (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
: Κράτης ὁ Ἀθηναῖος; died 268–264 BC) was a
Platonist
Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary platonists do not necessarily accept all of the doctrines of Plato. Platonism had a profound effect on Western thought. Platonism at l ...
philosopher and the last
scholarch
A scholarch ( grc, σχολάρχης, ''scholarchēs'') was the head of a school in ancient Greece. The term is especially remembered for its use to mean the heads of schools of philosophy, such as the Platonic Academy in ancient Athens. Its fir ...
of the
Old Academy
The Academy (Ancient Greek: Ἀκαδημία) was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367–347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic ...
.
Biography
Crates was the son of Antigenes of the Thriasian
deme
In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...
, the pupil and
eromenos of
Polemo, and his successor as scholarch of the
Platonic Academy
The Academy ( Ancient Greek: Ἀκαδημία) was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367–347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenisti ...
, in 270–69 BC. The intimate friendship of Crates and Polemo was celebrated in antiquity, and
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...
has preserved an epigram of the poet
Antagoras Antagoras of Rhodes ( grc-gre, Ἀνταγόρας ὁ Ῥόδιος, born on Rhodes about 270 B.C.) William Smith (ed) (1870) Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology ''from within'' was a Greek poet. He was also noted for his cooker ...
, according to which the two friends were united after death in one tomb. The epigram, according to him, reads:
"Stranger, who passest by, relate that here
The God-like Crates lies, and Polemo;
Two men of kindred nobleness of mind;
Out of whose holy mouths pure wisdom flowed,
And they with upright lives did well display,
The strength of all their principles and teaching."
The most distinguished of the pupils of Crates were the philosopher
Arcesilaus
Arcesilaus (; grc-gre, Ἀρκεσίλαος; 316/5–241/0 BC) was a Greek Hellenistic philosopher. He was the founder of Academic Skepticism and what is variously called the Second or Middle or New Academy – the phase of the Platonic Acad ...
, who succeeded him as scholarch,
Theodorus the Atheist
Theodorus the Atheist ( el, Θεόδωρος ὁ ἄθεος; c. 340 – c. 250 BCE), of Cyrene, was a Greek philosopher of the Cyrenaic school. He lived in both Greece and Alexandria, before ending his days in his native city of Cyrene. As a C ...
, and
Bion of Borysthenes
Bion of Borysthenes ( el, Βίων Βορυσθενίτης, ''gen''.: Βίωνος; BC) was a Greek philosopher. After being sold into slavery, and then released, he moved to Athens, where he studied in almost every school of philosophy. I ...
. The writings of Crates are lost. Diogenes Laërtius says that they were on
philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
subjects, on
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
, and also
orations
Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech deliver ...
; but the latter were probably written by
Crates of Tralles.
Notes
References
*
*
Attribution:
*
External links
Life of Crates
260s BC deaths
3rd-century BC Athenians
3rd-century BC philosophers
Academic philosophers
Hellenistic-era philosophers in Athens
Greek LGBT people
Ancient LGBT people
Year of birth unknown
{{Greece-philosopher-stub