CRANTOR

crantor, a greek philosopher of the old academy, was born, probably about the middle of the 4th century b.c., at soli in cilicia. he was a fellow-pupil of polemo in the school of xenocrates at athens, and was the first commentator on plato. he is said to have written some poems which he sealed up and deposited in the temple of athens at soli (diog. laertius iv. 5. 25). of his celebrated work _on grief_ ([greek: peri penthous]), a letter of condolence to his friend hippocles on the death of his children, numerous extracts have been preserved in plutarch's _consolatio ad apollonium_ and in the _de consolatione_ of cicero, who speaks of it (_acad._ ii. 44. 135) in the highest terms (_aureolus et ad verbum ediscendus_). crantor paid especial attention to ethics, and arranged "good" things in the following order--virtue, health, pleasure, riches. see f. kayser, _de crantore academico_ (1841); m. h. e. meier, _opuscula academica_, ii. (1863); f. susemihl, _geschichte der griechischen litteratur in der alexandrinerzeit_, i. (1891), p. 118.