De gustibus non disputandum? La cucina poetica di Cratete nel giudizio di Aristofane

In the parabasis of Knights Aristophanes makes use of food-related imagery in order to express an ambiguous judgement on the comic art of Crates, one of the most famous previous comedians. Not less ambiguous seems the judgement that Aristophanes reserved to him in a fragment, probably parabatic, of the Thesmophoriazusae II. This paper aims to disambiguate the ironic texture of this controversial Aristophanic criticism, starting from the re-examination of metrics and text of this fragment and of its discussed paradosis.