Poetics (15.5-15.9)

Thirdly, it should be like.[*] This is different from making the character good and from making it appropriate in the sense of the word as used above.

Fourthly, it should be consistent. Even if the original be inconsistent and offers such a character to the poet for representation, still he must be consistently inconsistent.

An example of unnecessary badness of character is Menelaos in the Orestes[*];

of character that is unfitting and inappropriate the lament of Odysseus in the Scylla[*] and Melanippe’s speech[*];

of inconsistent character Iphigeneia in Aulis, for the suppliant Iphigeneia is not at all like her later character.