Pratinas (Ancient Greek: Πρατίνας) was one of the early tragic poets who flourished at Athens at the beginning of the fifth century BCE, and whose combined efforts were thought by critics to have brought the art to its perfection.
Others disagree and observe that the early life of Pratinas would very probably imbue him with a taste for that kind of the drama; for his native city, Phlius, was the neighbor of Sicyon, the home of those "tragic choruses", on the strength of which the Dorians claimed to be the inventors of tragedy.
Pratinas may perhaps be considered to have shared with his contemporary Lasus of Hermione the honor of founding the Athenian school of dithyrambic poetry.
The poet complains that the voices of the singers were overpowered by the noise of the flutes, and expresses his desire to replace the prevailing Phrygian scales then commonly used with the Dorian.
It is impossible to say how much of his lyric poetry was separate from his dramas; in which, both from the age at which he lived, and from express testimony, we know that great importance was assigned not only to the songs, but also to the dances of the chorus.
Athenaeus mentions him as one of the poets who were called "orchestikoi" (ὀρχηστικοί), from the large part which the choral dances bore in their dramas.