raised once more to a point of primary importance. Thus it appears that from the standpoint of choral technique Aeschylus’ earliest play, the _Suppliants_, and his last play, the _Eumenides_, are the most successful. In general, the chorus in Sophocles and Euripides is less intimately related to the plot than in Aeschylus. Yet there are notable exceptions to this statement. Thus, the chorus of Euripides’ _Suppliants_ consists of Argive women together with their handmaids—the mothers of the seven chieftains who fell in the attack upon Thebes. They implore the aid of Theseus to force the Thebans to surrender the bodies of their sons for burial. According to ancient thought this was a matter of paramount importance and the whole play is occupied with it. The mothers are in fact the chief personages of the drama; the other characters speak and act only in their behalf. Not even the Danaids of Aeschylus’ _Suppliants_ are more indispensable to the mechanism of the piece. On the other hand, the connection between chorus and plot in Euripides’ _Phoenician Maids_ is of the flimsiest. This tragedy deals with the same subject as Aeschylus’ _Seven against Thebes_. But the Aeschylean chorus consists, as we have observed, of Theban girls who are vitally concerned in the outcome of the battle. Euripides’ chorus is made up of Tyrian virgins on their way to Delphi. They have no personal interest in the possible capture of Thebes or in the fratricidal strife of Eteocles and Polynices. The same sort of thing occurs also in Old Comedy. Dr. Fries (_op. cit._, p. 35) correctly points out that the knights in Aristophanes’ play of that name are present rather to listen than to act. In Aristophanes’ _Clouds_ and _Frogs_ the connection between chorus and action is of the slightest and entirely artificial. In general it can be said that the character of comic choruses is chosen rather to fit into some fantastic situation, and may be largely ignored toward the end of the play. Thus, in Aristophanes’ _Women at the Thesmophoria_ the women of Athens assemble to contrive a punishment for Euripides, who has been maligning their sex. Euripides’ father-in-law, made up as a woman, tries to defend him but is detected. During vss. 871-1160 Euripides under various disguises attempts to rescue his relative, but each time is frustrated. But the chorus of Euripides-haters assist in balking him neither by word nor deed. Their original character, if retained throughout these lines, would have too effectually thwarted the humor of his stratagems.