Questions of focalisation (or point of view) are of considerable importance in ancient literary criticism, and various aspects are discussed in the scholia. The best-known is probably the interpretative principle that is often referred to by the expression λύσις ἐκ τοῦ προσώπου (lit. ‘solution from the character’). Its point is that if one takes into account in each case who the speaker is, contradictions in a text can often be proven to be apparent only because the speakers are not identical. As Porphyry puts it:

From this it follows that exception should not be taken to such contradictions (in the present case: the different views of Hecuba and Hector as to whether or not wine has a strengthening effect).