Antistrophe

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A recurring part of a Greek chorus that follows the strophe and reflects a similar theme or idea
2. It refers to a section in ancient Greek drama where the chorus responds to the strophe, emphasizing key concepts
3. This term denotes a poetic or musical element in classical works, performing in response to the strophe while maintaining thematic coherence

Etymology: In ancient Greek drama, the chorus did not simply stand still while it sang. It moved. Its song was divided into a strophe, a section sung while the dancers turned in one direction, and then an antistrophe, sung as they turned back the other way. The term comes from Ancient Greek "antistrophḗ," meaning "turning about," built from "anti," "against" or "in return," and "strophḗ," "a turning." The physical motion of the dance gave the word its meaning, and the structure of the choral ode came to be named after the turn. English borrowed the term directly from Latin, which had itself taken it from Greek. Its use is confined largely to the vocabulary of classical scholarship and literary criticism, where it describes the matching second stanza of a choral ode, a pattern that a third section, the epode, often followed. The word therefore names a movement that once existed in performance and now survives only in the structure of the poem.