Final advice on plot construction

You must call to mind what I have said several times: one
should never build a tragedy with an epic structure, that is
to say, one containing more than one story. Suppose one
were to make the entire story of the Iliad into one play!
Epic is long enough for every episode to appear on an
appropriate scale, but in a drama the result is very
disappointing. There is evidence of this. Consider those
who have treated the sack of Troy as a whole, like
Euripides, rather than piecemeal, or the whole story of
Niobe, rather than what Aeschylus did. These people’s
plays were either complete failures or fared badly in the
competition. There was even a play of Agathon’s which
was a flop simply because of this.
15
In reversals and in simple plots poets like to astonish us,
in order to produce a desired effect that is both tragic and
humane. This happens when someone who is both clever
and wicked (like Sisyphus*) is taken in, or when someone