in lyric poetry, the third or last part of the ode, the ancient ode being divided into strophe, antistrophe, and epode. See Ode, &c.

The epode was sung by the priests, standing still before the altar, after all the turns and returns of the strophe. Epopeia and antistrope, and was not confined to any precise number or kind of verse.

The epode is now a general name for all kinds of little verses that follow one or more great ones, of what kindsoever they be; and in this sense, a pentameter is an epode after an hexameter. And as every little verse, which, being put after another, closes the period, is called epode; hence the fifth book of Horace's odes is entitled liber epodum, "book of epodes," because the verses are all alternately long and short, and the short ones generally, though not always, close the sense of the long one.

EPÓPOEIA, in poetry, the history, action, or fable, which makes the subject of an epic poem. The word is derived from the Greek, επόπεια, carmen, "verse;" and εποίησα, facio, "I make."

In the common use of the word, however, epopeia is the same with epos, or epic poem itself. See the article POETRY.