What does antistrophe mean?
Antistrophe is a term from classical Greek drama and lyric poetry denoting the stanza of a choral ode that responds to the opening strophe. As the chorus sang the strophe it moved in one direction; for the antistrophe it turned and moved the opposite way, singing verses built on exactly the same meter as the strophe. The two stanzas were typically followed by an epode, completing the triadic structure used by poets such as Pindar and the tragic dramatists. The word also has a rhetorical meaning: the deliberate repetition of words or phrases in reverse order across successive clauses, a device prized for its rhythmic and persuasive effect. Both senses derive from the Greek root meaning 'a turning,' making antistrophe part of a family of terms that includes strophe and catastrophe. Today the word appears chiefly in literary criticism, classics scholarship, and discussions of oratory, where it signals formal precision and learned command of poetic structure.
In ancient Greek drama and lyric poetry, the stanza of a choral ode that answers the strophe, sung as the chorus turns back in the opposite direction and matching the strophe's meter.
"The ode moved from strophe to antistrophe before closing with its epode."
This is the dominant and oldest sense of the word.
In rhetoric, the repetition of words or phrases in reverse order across successive clauses or sentences.
"His closing lines employed antistrophe, echoing his opening phrases in inverted form."
The plural is rare in practice, since most odes contain only one antistrophe per triad; it appears mainly when discussing multiple odes or multiple strophic pairs.
"The collection preserves several antistrophes composed for Athenian festivals."
When the ancient Greek chorus finished its strophe, it literally turned around — and the song it sang on the way back was called the antistrophe, from the Greek for 'a turning against.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of antistrophe
Antistrophe comes from the Greek antistrophē, formed from anti- ('against' or 'in return') and strophē ('a turning'), reflecting the chorus's physical turn as it sang the answering stanza. The term entered English in the early seventeenth century through Latinized Greek, alongside related borrowings such as strophe and catastrophe, all of which preserve the original sense of turning. Its cognates include apostrophe, which likewise derives from a Greek compound involving strophē.
How antistrophe is actually used
Antistrophe is a technical term encountered mainly in classical studies, literary criticism, rhetoric, and advanced vocabulary contexts. It carries no emotional connotation; register is formal and scholarly. The rhetorical sense is rarer than the dramatic sense but is often cited in discussions of famous speeches.
Easily confused with antistrophe
The strophe is the first stanza of a choral ode, while the antistrophe is the responding stanza that follows it with matching meter.
An apostrophe is either a punctuation mark or a literary address to an absent person or thing, whereas an antistrophe is a stanza of Greek choral verse or a figure of reversed word order.