Note 861 — Chapter VI · THE CHORUS

The decision of the question depends on the passage in the Agamemnon, s.vv. 1344-71. There is no doubt that the twelve iambic couplets, 1348-71, were delivered by twelve choreutae. The difficulty is to decide whether the three trochaic tetrameters, 1344, 1346, and 1347, were delivered by three additional choreutae, or by the coryphaeus. Either view is plausible, and it seems impossible to determine the matter without further evidence. The statement of Schol. Arist. Equit. 586, that the chorus in the Agamemnon was fifteen in number, is merely an inference from the passage just referred to. The statement of Schol. Aesch. Eum. 585, that the chorus in the Eumenides consisted of fifteen persons, is simply grounded on the assumption that the number was the same as in later times. In neither case is the evidence of any independent value.