CRANTOR  , a

Greek philosopher of the Old Academy, was born, probably about the middle of the 4th century 11.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 (IIepl ir&Oovs), a letter of condolence to his friend Hippocles on the death of his children, numerous extracts have been preserved in Plutarch's Consolatio ad A pollonium 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 .