in Lyric Poetry, the third or last part of the ode, the ancient ode being divided into strophe, antistrophe, and epode. The epode was sung by the priests, standing still before the altar, after all the turns and returns of the strophe and antistrophe, and was not confined to any precise number or kind of verses. The epode is now a general name for all kinds of little verses which follow one or more great ones, of what kind soever these be; and in this sense a pentameter is an epode after an hexameter.