But this chorus consists of Corinthian women in whose sight Medea must be a foreigner, nay worse, a barbarian. It is so utterly improbable that womanly sympathy should cause Greek women to acquiesce in a barbarian’s plans for the assassination of their sovereign and his daughter that Professor Verrall[268] supposed a chorus to have been mechanically added in a subsequent revision (our present text) to a play originally written for private presentation without a chorus. On the other hand, the chorus are occasionally permitted to act as real people would and communicate their secret. Thus, in Euripides’ _Ion_, vss. 666 f., Xuthus threatens his wife’s handmaidens with death if they betray to her the supposed fact that Ion is his son. Nevertheless, this is exactly what they do, declaring to her: “It shall be told, though I die twice over” (vs. 760); and thus they precipitate one of the most thrilling scenes in Greek tragedy. This is a characteristic product of Greek dexterity. Not content to surmount a troublesome obstacle, they actually derive an advantage from it. We have seen that it was practically impossible for the chorus to leave the scene of action during the play. This convention was particularly awkward when circumstances arose which would naturally demand their presence elsewhere. Such a situation was most frequently brought about by a murder or suicide just behind the scenes. Up to some thirty years ago an explanation of the chorus’ failure to pass through the back scene under such circumstances might be sought in the physical conditions, since until then it was supposed that the Greek actors had stood upon a stage ten or twelve feet above the chorus (see p. 78, above). This interpretation never had more than half a leg to stand upon, inasmuch as the extant plays prove conclusively that, whatever the physical conditions, intercourse between actors and chorus was quite feasible and was often resorted to (see p. 88, above); but it lost the slightest claim to acceptance after Dörpfeld’s excavations and a re-examination of the evidence showed that during the classical period of Greek drama chorus and actors had stood upon the same level (see p. 117, above). Moreover, it is illuminating to note that the chorus found it as difficult to leave the scene of action during the play by the side entrances as by the doors in the background. By vs. 1070 of Sophocles’ _Philoctetes_, Odysseus and Neoptolemus have gained possession of Heracles’ bow and are preparing to return to their ship. As the chorus consists of sailors, these would naturally leave with their commander. But the play was not to end at this point, and the poet wished the chorus to sing at vs. 1095. Accordingly, Philoctetes appeals to the chorus not to desert him (vss. 1070 f.), and upon their referring the request to Neoptolemus he replies, very improbably, that at the risk of his being considered soft-hearted they