Off-stage cries? The performance of Sophocles’ Philoctetes 201–218, Trachiniae 863–870, and Euripides’ Electra 747–760

There are three instances of off-stage cries that have no cries transcribed in our manuscripts: Sophocles’ Philoctetes 201–218, Trachiniae 863–870, and Euripides’ Electra 747–760. These three are also the only cries where the on-stage characters express doubt about whether they can hear the cries. This pattern is unlikely to occur by chance, and instead seems very likely to tell us something about how the passages were performed, probably that the cries were not sounded at all.