In this passage which contains the second part of the contest between the two poets, their choral songs (μέλη) are under attack. Euripides, who has just now undergone a crushing criticism in the ληκύϑιον-episode (1201-47), is, however, as yet full of confidence (cf. 1249 f. and 1261 f.). When considering the choral song which introduces this part (1251-60), one must bear in mind that it presents a double-sided mentality: a) on the one hand because of the economy of the play Aristophanes has as yet to leave the contest undecided and so to keep the public in suspense; b) on the other it is obvious that in the choral song, just as in the whole play, the poet is partial to Aeschylus. This mentality appears in a typical way in the song, of which the last part (1257-60) has been bracketed by most critics, for they object that the chorus is over-abundant here and repeats in the second part the same point which was mooted in the first part: namely that an excellent poet (Aeschylus) will be subjected to criticism and this fact makes the chorus ponder.