Life Gryllus of Athens (Γρύλλος ὁ Ἀθηναῖος) was a poet of Athenian Old Comedy, active in the 4th century BCE. He is known solely from a single verse fragment cited by the later compiler Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistae [1]. No biographical details of his life are preserved beyond his identification as an Athenian.

Works His work survives only as a one-line fragment from an unnamed comedy, preserved by Athenaeus (Deipnosophistae 3.114c) [1]. The line describes a type of bread or cake called a kribanē.

Significance Gryllus is a minor, fragmentary author representative of the many lost poets of Old Comedy. Such fragments are valuable to scholars for the incidental light they shed on daily life, material culture, and language in classical Athens [1].

Sources 1. Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University): Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, Book 3, section 114c. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0008.tlg001.perseus-grc1:3.114c