HumanitiesClassicsLiteratureComparative PoeticsLiterary CriticismPoetryLyric PoetryPoeticsTheories Of Poetry
CRATES OF MALLOS IS WELL KNOWN in classical scholarship, but his reputation is not very enviable. Although posterity has admired his learning, he is regarded as something of a crank. Even Varro, who borrowed from him, accused him of obtuseness. I would like to suggest in this paper that Crates deserves a better fate. He developed a theory of poetry that is not widely known today, but ranks as a major contribution to the history of aesthetics.