During the earlier part of the fifth century the practice of writing plays in tetralogies seems to have been generally adopted, not only by Aeschylus, but by all other tragic poets. One such tetralogy, the Lycurgeia of Polyphradmon, happens to have been recorded. It was Sophocles who first gave up the system, and regularly composed his four plays on independent subjects.[61] The example set by Sophocles was followed by the younger generation. Even as early as 467, when Aeschylus brought out his Oedipodeia, and Polyphradmon his Lycurgeia, the third poet, Aristias, competed with a group of disconnected plays. After the death of Aeschylus the tetralogy speedily went out of fashion. It was never attempted by Euripides. In fact during the latter half of the fifth century only three tetralogies are mentioned. A Pandionis was written by Philocles, the nephew of Aeschylus, who naturally followed in his uncle’s footsteps. An Oedipodeia was composed by Meletus, the prosecutor of Socrates. Plato is also said to have written a tetralogy before he abandoned poetry for philosophy.[62] After the end of the fifth century all traces of the tetralogy disappear. One reason for its decline in popularity and rapid discontinuance may have been the increased length of plays. A tragedy of the later poets was considerably longer, and contained much more incident, than a tragedy of Aeschylus. A trilogy composed of dramas of this bulk would have been a vast and laborious undertaking. Another reason may have been the gradual change in religious sentiment. The doctrine of the hereditary curse in families, which the trilogy was admirably adapted to exemplify, no longer held a prominent place in the moral ideas of post-Aeschylean poets. The chief motive of their tragedy was human passion rather than religious truth. In such circumstances the trilogy, as a form of art, had no advantages sufficient to compensate for the unwieldiness of its size.