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Crater is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its name means "cup" in Latin. One of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, it depicts a cup that has been associated with the god Apollo and is perched on the back of Hydra the water snake.

There is no star brighter than third magnitude. Its two brightest stars, Delta Crateris of magnitude 3.56 and Alpha Crateris of magnitude 4.07, are ageing orange giant stars that are cooler and larger than the Sun. Beta Crateris is a binary star system composed of a white main sequence star and a white dwarf. Seven star systems have been found to host planets. The Crater 2 dwarf galaxy is a nearby satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

This constellation, along with the eagle Aquila and the fish Piscis Austrinus, were introduced to the Greeks around 500 BCE; they marked the winter and summer solstices respectively. Furthermore, Hydra had been a landmark as it had straddled the celestial equator in antiquity.

Crater is identified with a story from Greek mythology in which a crow or raven serves Apollo, and is sent to fetch water, but it rests lazily on the journey, and after finally obtaining the water in a cup, takes back a water snake as an excuse. According to the myth, Apollo saw through the fraud, and angrily cast the crow, cup, and snake, into the sky.

Covering 282.4 square degrees and hence 0.685% of the sky, Crater ranks 53rd of the 88 constellations in area. It is bordered by Leo and Virgo to the north, Corvus to the east, Hydra to the south and west, and Sextans to the northwest. The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is 'Crt'.