Again, in Sophocles’ _Maidens of Trachis_, Lichas, Deianira, and a messenger are on the scene when Deianira spies Iole in a throng of captives and questions her (vss. 307 ff.). Iole makes no reply whatsoever. Lichas explains her refusal to answer by stating that from grief and weeping she has not uttered a word since leaving her fatherland (vss. 322 ff.). Since the three actors are already occupied in this scene it is evident that Iole is played by a mute and cannot speak. This illustrates principles (5) and (7). Still again, up to vs. 1245 of Euripides’ _Orestes_, when he enters the palace, Pylades speaks freely. At vs. 1554 Menelaus, Orestes, Hermione, and Pylades enter the scene. The last two are now played by mutes, the third actor appearing as Apollo at vs. 1625. Orestes threatens to kill Hermione; and after vainly striving to deter him Menelaus turns to Pylades with the query (vs. 1591): “Do you, also, share in this murder, Pylades?” What is a mute to do under such circumstances? Orestes relieved the situation by saying: “His silence gives consent; my word will suffice.” There can be no doubt that the playwright intended Menelaus’ question to create the illusion that Pylades could have spoken had he so desired, principles (6_a_) and (7). Euripides avoided an awkward silence of this sort in the _Ion_ by leaving Xuthus unrepresented in the final scene, where the three actors speak in other rôles. Xuthus takes his final departure at vs. 675, intending to celebrate for his new-found son a public feast from which the host himself is most strangely absent. The poet prepares us in advance for this contingency by means of Xuthus’ words to his son, as reported by a servant at vss. 1130 ff.: “If I tarry in sacrificing to the Birth-gods,” a thin pretext, “place the feast before the friends assembled there,” principles (1), (2), (3), and (10).