Words & WritingGreek → English
Epode
/ˈɛpoʊd/noun
The third part of a Greek choral ode, sung after the strophe and antistrophe, or a poem in couplets of alternating long and short lines.
The Greek roots
ἐπί
epí
upon, after
ᾠδή
ōidḗ
song, ode
Literally: “after-song”
The story of the word
In performance the chorus moved one way for the strophe, back for the antistrophe, then stood still for the epode. The same compound in the form ἐπῳδή meant an incantation, a song sung over someone to heal or to curse, which is where English gets the rare word epode's darker cousin. Horace called a whole book of his poems Epodes, taking the shape from Archilochus.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
odepalinodeparodymelodyprosody
In a sentence
Pindar's victory odes turn on the epode, where the chorus stops moving and the moral lands.