Ode (from the Ancient Greek ὠδή) is a form of stately and elaborate lyrical verse.

Each of these culminated in what have been called odes, but the former, in the hands of Alcaeus, Anacreon and Sappho, came closer to the lyric. On the other hand, the choir-song, in which the poet spoke for himself, but always supported, or interpreted, by a chorus, led to the ode proper. Alcman is supposed to have given his poems a strophic arrangement, and the strophe has come to be essential to an ode. Stesichorus, Ibycus and Simonides of Ceos led the way to the two great masters of ode among the ancients: Pindar and Bacchylides.