antistrophe

/ænˈtɪstrəfi/

Other forms: antistrophes

An antistrophe is the second part of a classical Greek ode, during which the chorus sings as it reverses its direction across the stage.

In ancient Greece, the choral poetic form called an ode had three sections, beginning with the strophe and ending with the epode. In between was the antistrophe. The word in Greek is antistrophē, literally defined as "a turning back" and commonly used to mean "the return of the chorus." After this poem-singing group moved from right to left (or east to west) across the stage during the strophe, they reversed, moving left to right as they performed the antistrophe.

Definitions of antistrophe

1. noun

   the section of a choral ode answering a previous strophe in classical Greek drama; the second of two metrically corresponding sections in a poem
   type of:

   stanza

   a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem