A systematic investigation of his quotations from Euripides reveals Plutarch’s thorough familiarity with many of the Athenian’s plays, which he was able to quote currently, often from memory, sometimes incurring a few minor slips. He often adapts the quotations to his own prose context; sometimes he resorts to scholarly allusion, taking for granted his readership’s familiarity with the original, and his ability to grasp and appreciate the mood induced by a small variation”. This point is plain enough, as far as preserved tragedies are concerned. The investigation is more difficult about his quotations from lost tragedies. In some cases, the peculiarity of the quotation is due to problems in the transmission of Plutarch’s text. In one case, however, a slip on Plutarch’s part can hardly be denied – concerning not the quote itself, but the attribution to a wrong play.