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130 SOPHOCLES. cules descends from Olympus to command Philoctetes to go to Troy and share with Neoptolemus in the glory of its capture. The op- position between the three characters is thus reconciled, and they are all justified : Ulysses in his public-spirited policy, Neoptolemus in his straightforward veracity, and Philoctetes in his natural re- sentment. It is to be observed, however, that this use of the Deus ex macMna, which is found only in the latest play of Sophocles, and which is considered to have been mainly due to Euripides, is in itself an indication of declining dramatic power ^ ^ Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 20, § 52: '^Ut tragic! poet?e, quura explicare argument! exitum non potestis, confugitis ad deum."
