[315] vv. 1424-5. [316] _Choeph._ 1075-6 (Verrall’s translation). [317] vv. 1508 _sqq._ (Jebb’s translation). [318] vv. 616-21. [319] This seems a fair deduction, not only from the whole situation, but from the pause after Αἴγισθον in v. 957; also perhaps from the emphatic ἐμοί of v. 974. Cp. also 582 _sqq._ and especially the comment of the chorus in v. 1080 (διδύμαν ἑλοῦσ’ Ἐρινύν). [320] vv. 1331-3. [321] _Arrangement_: protagonist, Œdipus; deuteragonist, Priest, Jocasta, servant of Laius; tritagonist, Creon, Tiresias, the two messengers. [322] vv. 774 _sqq._ [323] It is true that when the prophet mentions the parents of Œdipus quite definitely (v. 436) the king is startled. But this is one point only. All the other remarks of Tiresias are ignored. [324] See Aristotle, _Poetic_, 1454_b_. [325] vv. 130-1. [326] See pp. 127-8. [327] vv. 124-5. [328] The entry of Fortinbras at the end of _Hamlet_ is closely similar. Perhaps it is fear of anti-climax which causes producers nowadays to omit this finale. [329] Note his preciosity, vv. 942, 959, 1028. [330] He first (v. 1026) says that he found the infant Œdipus; only later (1038) does he admit that another man has been concerned. [331] vv. 758-64. [332] vv. 1117-8. [333] v. 1141. [334] _Arrangement_: protagonist, Deianira, Heracles; deuteragonist, Hyllus, Lichas; tritagonist, nurse, messenger, old man. [335] See Jebb’s _Introduction_, pp. xxxviii _sq._ [336] vv. 575-7 (Jebb’s translation). [337] vv. 547-9. [338] These remarks are not vitiated by the fact (see Jebb on v. 1224) that legend wedded Iole to Hyllus. If the command of Heracles is as objectionable as Jebb appears to think, why did Sophocles go out of his way to cause the hero himself, instead of some other, to enjoin the marriage? [339] vv. 719 _sq._ [340] This accounts also for the absurd behaviour of the nurse (vv. 927 _sq._) who instead of interfering hastens away to Hyllus, entirely unlike other such women in tragedy. [341] See the speech of Lichas (vv. 248-86). [342] Deianira’s plan, moreover, reads like a sort of dilution of Medea’s, and her last moments (vv. 900-22) recall the description in the _Alcestis_ (vv. 158-84). [343] v. 427. Cp. Eur. _Helena_, 567: ποίας δάμαρτος; [344] Jebb points out that _Trach._ 416 and _Supplices_ 567 are practically identical. [345] v. 1140. [346] 268. [347] vv. 9-14. [348] That even the equable Sophocles did on occasion embody criticism of other playwrights in his works is shown by such passages as _Electra_ 1288 _sqq._, _Œd Col._ 1148-9. [349] _Arrangement_: protagonist, Philoctetes; deuteragonist, Neoptolemus; tritagonist, Odysseus, merchant, Heracles. [350] vv. 1007-15. [351] _E.g._ Mahaffy (_History of Gk. Lit., Poets_, pp. 309-12). [352] Christ (_Geschichte der Gr. Lit._ p. 210) who compares Heracles here to the δαιμόνιον σημεῖον of Socrates. [353] K. O. Müller (_Gr. Lit._, ii. p. 124) who is opposed by Bernhardy (II, ii. p. 370). [354] vv. 1404 _sqq._