View source for Epode

{{Short description|Section, line, or type of poem in Ancient Greek poetry}}
{{for multi|the child-obesity-prevention organisation|EPODE International Network|the collection of poems by Horace|Epodes (Horace)}}
{{One source|date=February 2012}}
According to one meaning of the word, an '''epode'''<ref>From {{langx|el|ἐπῳδός}}, ''epodos'', "singing to/over, an enchanter."</ref> is the third part of an ancient Greek choral [[ode]] that follows the [[strophe]] and the [[antistrophe]] and completes the movement.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Epode |volume=9 |page=707 |inline=1}}</ref>

The word epode is also used to refer to the second, shorter line of a two-line stanza of the kind composed by [[Archilochus]] and [[Hipponax]] in which the first line consists of a dactylic hexameter or an iambic trimeter.<ref>West, M. L. (1987). [https://archive.org/details/west-1987-introduction-to-greek-metre/mode/2up?view=theater ''An Introduction to Greek Metre'']. Oxford.; p. 31.</ref> (See [[Archilochian]].) It can also be used (as in Horace's [[Epodes (Horace)|Epodes]]) to refer to poems written in such stanzas.

==Evolution==
In the performance of a choral ode, at a certain point in time the choirs, which had previously chanted to the right of the altar or stage, and then to the left of it, combined and sang in unison, or permitted the ''[[coryphaeus]]'' to sing for them all, while standing in the centre.

The epode soon took its place in choral poetry, which it lost when that branch of literature declined. But it extended beyond the ode, and in the early dramatists we find numerous examples of monologues and dialogues framed on the epodical system. In [[Latin]] poetry the epode was cultivated, in conscious [[archaism]], both as a part of the ode and as an independent branch of poetry. Of the former class, the [[epithalamia]] of [[Catullus]], founded on an imitation of [[Pindar]], present us with examples of strophe, antistrophe and epode; and it has been observed that the celebrated ode 1.12 of [[Horace]], beginning {{lang|la|Quem virum aut heroa lyra vel acri}}, possesses this triple character.<ref name=EB1911/>

==''Epodes'' of Horace==
{{Main|Epodes (Horace)}}

The word is now mainly familiar from the {{lang|la|Epodon liber}} or the ''Book of Epodes'', one of the early works of [[Horace]]. He says in the course of these poems that in composing them he was introducing a new form, at least in [[Latin literature]], and that he was imitating the effect of the iambic [[distich]]s invented by Archilochus. Accordingly, the first ten of these epodes are composed in alternate verses of [[iambic trimeter]] and [[iambic dimeter]], as at, for example, ''Epode'' 5.1–2:<ref name=EB1911/>

:{{lang|la|At o deorum quicquid in caelo regit<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;terras et humanum genus}}<ref name=EB1911/>

:'But, o any of the gods in the heavens ruling<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the lands and the human race.'

In the seven remaining epodes Horace diversified the measures, while retaining the general character of the distich. This group of poems belongs mostly to the early youth of the poet and displays a truculence and a controversial heat which are absent from his more mature writings. As he was imitating Archilochus in form, he believed himself justified in repeating the sarcastic violence of his fierce model. These particular poems of Horace, which are short lyrical satires, have appropriated almost exclusively the name of epodes, although they bear little enough resemblance to the epode of early [[Greek literature]].<ref name=EB1911/>

==See also==
* [[Prosody (Latin)]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{wikisourcelang-inline|la|Epodi}}

{{Horace}}
{{Authority control}}

{{EB1911 article with no significant updates}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek theatre]]
[[Category:Poetic forms]]