in the ancient Greek drama, the conclusion of a tragedy; or, more strictly, that portion of the play in which the catastrophe is indicated and the plot begins to be unravelled.

Among the Romans the name of exodia was given to pieces of a burlesque or comic description acted after other plays, or as interludes; or perhaps the exodia were sometimes travesties on the subject of the play itself. These pieces were in verse, and were inserted in other plays, but chiefly in the Atellanae. Their real character has not been very precisely ascertained; but it would appear that although distinct from the Atellanae they were for the most part intimately connected with them. Under the emperors, exodia, or ludicrous pieces interlarded with much ribaldry and buffoonery, were performed by young and well-born Romans, who came forward at the conclusion of the tragedy or other play, after the professional actors and musicians had left the stage.