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Discusses the passage in the extant plays of Sophocles and Euripides. Speeches of extant Aeschylan tragedy; Looseness of connection between choral codas and the action of the plays; Constitution of the choral coda as the marker of the end of a tragedy; Closing words of Sophocles' tragedies.

This article focuses on "Choephori." The line in question occurs towards the end of Orestes' final exchange with Clytemnestra, after her attempts at self-defence have all met with rebuttal. Agamemnon's fate, his having been killed by Clytemnestra has led to her death in turn. The line suggests the chain of retribution, of linked deaths, that runs through the trilogy and gives rise to its central problem. meets with, his life span. Detailed accounts of its range of meanings are available elsewhere; what is significant here is that an investigation of the occurrences of the word in Homer, Hesiod, lyric and elegiac poetry and tragedy reveals no instance in which one person is said actively to have affected another person.