But not only should choral odes be appropriate to the dramatic character of the chorus; they ought also to be closely connected with the theme of the play. And this requirement is no less difficult than the other. The ode on the inventive spirit of man in Sophocles’ _Antigone_, vss. 334-75, is so vague that an audience might well be in doubt as to which one of the dramatic characters it was intended for. Verses 1115-52 in the same play, a hymn to Dionysus, is quite irrelevant, except in so far as that divinity was the patron of the dramatic festival. Other instances are found in Euripides. Verses 1301-68 of _Helen_ deal with Demeter’s search for her lost daughter and are so alien to the subject of the tragedy that many have considered them an interpolation. An adventitious connection is sought, at the close, by the suggestion that Helen’s misfortunes are due to her neglect of Demeter’s worship (vss. 1355-57). Again, the chorus’ eulogy of Apollo in _Iphigenia among the Taurians_, vss. 1234-83, is so disconnected with the story that Professor Decharme (_op. cit._, pp. 312 f.) could defend it only by saying: “If, therefore, the chorus wishes not to rouse the suspicion of Thoas, it must speak of something else than that which really engrosses its attention. Hence the eulogy of Apollo that compromises nobody, whose purport Thoas would not understand were he to appear suddenly, but which the spectator comprehends, provided he reflects.” The description of Achilles’ armor in Euripides’ _Electra_, vss. 434-78, has already been mentioned (pp. 139 f., above). It is as little connected with the plot as it is appropriate to the chorus of that play. Nevertheless, Euripides brought the ode back to the theme with a jerk by saying: “The lord of such warriors didst thou slay, O Clytemnestra” (vss. 479 f.). There are but two things that can be said to palliate this offense. The first is to indicate the difficulty of the problem; the other, to point out that the ingenuity of the ancient playwrights fell short in only a few plays and seldom more than once in any one piece.