Orestes rushes into the theater and exclaims, “O queen Athena, I come at the bidding of Loxias.” He has reached Athens! In Euripides’ _Alcestis_ the chorus forms part of the queen’s funeral cortège and is absent during vss. 747-860. Although it is not usually so regarded I am inclined to think that there is a slight change of scene here (see p. 235, above); there is also a slight condensation of time, but neither constitutes a serious violation of these unities. This is one of the rare cases where the withdrawal of the chorus resulted naturally from the normal development of the plot. For if the choreutae had been present when Heracles announced his intention of rescuing Alcestis from death (vss. 840 ff.) the poet must have invented a reason for their not reporting this news to Admetus or have spoiled certain features of the finale. It was much simpler to avoid the difficulty by allowing the chorus to do the natural thing. In the following instances apparently no change of scene or undue compression of time is involved. In Euripides’ _Helen_ (vs. 385) the chorus accompany their mistress inside the palace to consult the seeress Theonoe and re-enter at vs. 515. The only advantage that seems to accrue from this maneuver is to prolong Menelaus’ uncertainty as to the identity of his newly recovered wife. In Aristophanes’ _Women in Council_ (vs. 311) the women of the chorus, disguised as men, leave for the assembly in order to vote the management of the state into their own hands, returning at vs. 478. Unless the playwright wished to have the assembly scene enacted before the audience he had to withdraw the chorus. As it is their doings are reported by a messenger (Chremes) in vss. 376 ff. In the pseudo-Euripidean _Rhesus_ the chorus is absent during vss. 565-674, being sent in front of the camp to receive Dolon (cf. vss. 522 ff.). The presence of Trojan guards would have prevented the intervening scene between the Greek marauders, Odysseus and Diomedes. It will be noted how few are the instances of the withdrawal of the chorus in the extant plays and that the observance of the unities figures in just half of them. In New Comedy the chorus appeared only between acts (see p. 145) and it would have been feasible to assume a lacuna several times in each play. That this was not done was probably due to the fact that the other practice had become stereotyped and that concentration of action resulted in greater unity of plot. Sometimes the stage is left empty _before the entrance of the chorus_ by the retirement of all the actors on the scene either between the prologue and the parodus or between monologues (or dialogues) in the prologue. Euripides’ _Alcestis_ (vs. 77) furnishes an example of the former and his _Iphigenia among the Taurians_ (vs. 66) of the latter. So far as I have observed such pauses are not made use of to accelerate the time unduly.