Crates of Athens (

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

: 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 doctrines of Plato. Platonism has had a profound effect on Western thought. At the most fundam ...

philosopher and the last

scholarch A scholarch (, ''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 first scholarch was Plato h ...

of the

Old Academy The Academy (), variously known as Plato's Academy, or the Platonic Academy, was founded in Athens by Plato '' circa'' 387 BC. The academy is regarded as the first institution of higher education in the west, where subjects as diverse as biolo ...

Biography

Crates was the son of Antigenes of the Thriasian

deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or (, plural: ''demoi'', δήμοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Classical Athens, Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, bu ...

, the pupil and eromenos of Polemo, and his successor as scholarch of the

Platonic Academy The Academy (), variously known as Plato's Academy, or the Platonic Academy, was founded in Classical Athens, Athens by Plato ''wikt:circa, circa'' 387 BC. The academy is regarded as the first institution of higher education in the west, where ...

, in 270–69 BC. The intimate friendship of Crates and Polemo was celebrated in antiquity, and

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...

has preserved an epigram of the poet Antagoras, 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 (; ; 316/5–241/0 BC) was a Greece, Greek Hellenistic philosophy, 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 Acade ...

, who succeeded him as scholarch,

Theodorus the Atheist Theodorus "the Atheist" (; 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 Cyrenaic philosopher, he taught that ...

, and Bion of Borysthenes. The writings of Crates are lost. Diogenes Laërtius says that they were on

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

subjects, on

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic 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. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

, and also orations; 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 Greek philosophers Academic philosophers Hellenistic-era philosophers in Athens Ancient Greek LGBTQ people Year of birth unknown {{ancientGreece-philosopher-stub