dithyramb

Home > ... > Literature and the Arts > Classical Literature, Mythology, and Folklore > Classical Literature > ...

Essential reading Compare
side-by-side The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

dithyramb

dithyramb , in ancient Greece, hymn to the god Dionysus, choral lyric with exchanges between the leader and the chorus. It arose, probably, in the extemporaneous songs of the Dionysiac festivals and was developed (according to tradition, by Arion ) into the literary form to be found, for example, in the dithyrambs of Bacchylides . In its later development by such poets as Philoxenus and Timotheus it became freer in its meter and more musical. The tragedy seems to have come out of the dithyramb, but the dithyramb was also cultivated after tragedy was invented.

Bibliography: See A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy (1927, repr. 1962).

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1E1-dithyram" title="Facts and information about dithyramb">dithyramb</a>

Give this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

"dithyramb." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 29 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"dithyramb." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (November 29, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-dithyram.html

"dithyramb." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-dithyram.html

Learn more about citation styles

dithyramb

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | Â© The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

dithyramb, a lyric poem in a lofty style with a flute accompaniment in the Phrygian mode originally antistrophic and sung in honour of Bacchus. Later dithyrambs were monostrophic and could be addressed to other gods.

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O54-dithyramb" title="Facts and information about dithyramb">dithyramb</a>

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "dithyramb." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "dithyramb." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (November 29, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-dithyramb.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "dithyramb." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-dithyramb.html

Learn more about citation styles

Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries and thesauruses

Rate these entries|See all related entries

Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Lolita. Magazine article from: National Review; 12/11/1995
	O sole mio! (Italy) Magazine article from: National Review; 9/20/1985
	LOVE POEM FOR AN ENEMY.(Poem) Magazine article from: Poetry; 2/1/2001

Facts and information from other sites

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

	Give Me Life Coarse and Rank Magazine article from: The Virginia Quarterly Review; 4/1/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...of Whitman goes back to the dithyrambs of ancient Greece and, while...pedigree. Originally, a dithyramb was "a frenzied, impassioned...lyric nor narrative, the dithyramb embraces both the emotional...Dionysian ecstasies and the dithyrambs that voice them. The play...
	TIME OUT: Word Wizard.(Features) Newspaper article from: The Journal (Newcastle, England); 10/2/2008; 323 words ; ...which is correct. Can you identify the right definition? DITHYRAMB 1) An aromatic, shrubby plant secreting much oil; 2) A...tower in early medieval castles. ANSWER: No 2 is correct. A dithyramb is an ecstatic choral hymn.
	Word Wizard.(Features) Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England); 10/2/2008; 309 words ; ...which is correct. Can you identify the right definition? DITHYRAMB 1) An aromatic, shrubby plant secreting much oil; 2) A...tower in early medieval castles. ANSWER: No 2 is correct. A dithyramb is an ecstatic choral hymn.
	There's a long and even jubil ... Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 2/10/2002; 700+ words ; ...Kenyon, reassembled 1382 lines: 15 epinician odes and five dithyrambs. Here is the sixth ode in David Slavitt's agile colloquial...Hopkins University Press. "Ode VI" from "Epinician Odes and Dithyrambs of Bacchylides," translated by David R. Slavitt. Copyright...
	Olympian odes: I say, what rhymes with Discoboloi? Newspaper article from: The Independent on Sunday; 8/8/2004; ; 698 words ; ...up. For a century international stadia did not ring with dithyrambs. Athens 2004 offered the perfect opportunity for the tradition...floating into my head, so sat down and composed a 25-line dithyramb in honour of Athens. I was in Rome on holiday at the time...
	'Parodia' und Parodie. Aspekte intertextuellen Schreibens in der lateinischen Literatur der Fruhen Neuzeit.(NEO-LATIN NEWS)(Book review) Magazine article from: Seventeenth-Century News; 9/22/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...who in her contribution presents a particular Baroque parody, Paul Fleming's (1609-1640) nuptial dithyramb, based on a dithyramb by the Polish poet Maciej Kasimierz Sarbiewski (15951640). Apart from drawing relations between both texts...
	Songs of the Sirens.(Excerpt) Magazine article from: The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide; 9/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...Both the name of Dionysus and his associated song type, the dithyramb, begin with the syllable "di," meaning two, which may...Greek form, the lyre). Dionysian song was represented by dithyrambs, a large-scale song type performed by about fifty men and...
	AURA OF POETIC DECAY -- PROVOCATIVE AND PRETTY Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 11/17/1988; ; 700+ words ; ...transforming them into symmetrical symbols. In a big work like "Dithyramb," Antic forsakes the intimate, quiet feeling of "East...While "East to West" appeals directly to the emotions, "Dithyramb" goes straight for the senses. For the past few years Pier...
	The Poem and its Secret Magazine article from: Poetry; 1/1/2007; ; 700+ words ; ...Wanted poster, so to speak. On one hand, the poet is a confidence man: in his epics and songs of praise, his odes and dithyrambs, he pretends to have specialized knowledge he cannot possibly have. The poet does not think; he only receives what a god...
	24 May 1996 in St. Petersburg, Russia: the perceived significance of Joseph Brodsky's legacy. Magazine article from: World Literature Today; 1/1/1997; ; 700+ words ; ...half" subsequently celebrated in the latter poet's 1986 collection of essays. Kushner's modest memories and Sobchak's dithyramb define two extremes, toward one or the other of which almost all Petersburgian tributes over the summer tended: either the...