Pherēcrătes

, a comic poet of Athens, in the age of Plato and Aris toph anes. He is supposed to have written 21 comedies, of which only a few verses remain. He introduced living characters on the stage, but never abused the liberty which he had taken, either by satire or defamation. He invented a sort of verse, which from him has been called Pherecratian . It consisted of the three last feet of an hexameter verse, of which the first was always a spondee, as for instance, the third verse of Horace’s bk. 1 , ode 5, Grato Pyrrha sub antro. ――Another, descended from Deucalion. Cicero , Tusculanæ Dis put at i ones .