Thucydides has idealized and dramatized Cleon, who is quasi-hero of his. own personal drama, and also a minor character in the larger tragedy of Athens. Thucydides was on his guard against fabulous invention, not against infiguration by an art-form , as seen in the dramatized legend of Pausanias. The structure of Aeschylean tragedy is intermediate between pure symbolism and realism. The characters are highly abstract, being little more than personified symbols. So are the characters in Thucydides.
Tragic irony arises from the separation of the two planes.
Hypnotic effect of some speeches in Aeschylus. Compare the speeches in Thucydides. The problem of responsibility in Aeschylus is solved by conceiving the Tragic Passions both as supernatural agencies from without and as internal factors in the agent's mind. This is possible by means of the idea of spiritual possession. Alcibiades' part in this incident is omitted by Thucydides.