Choric poem, chant, or hymn of ancient Greece. Dithyrambs were sung by revelers at the festival in honour of Dionysus. The form originated about the 7th century BC in extemporaneous songs of banqueters; it was a recognized literary genre by the end of the 6th century BC. Dithyrambs were composed by Arion and Pindar, among others. By 450 BC the form was in decline; most dithyrambs were bombastic and turgid
In classic poetry, a type of melic verse associated with drunken revelry and performed to honor of Dionysus (Bacchus), the Greek god of wine and ecstacy In modern usage, the term has come to mean a poem of impassioned frenzy and irregular character Sidelight: John Dryden's "Alexander's Feast" bears a resemblance to the dithyrambic form
A Greek religious rite in which a chorus of fifty men, dressed in goatskins, chanted and danced; the precursor, according to Aristotle, of Greek tragedy
choral hymn in honour of Dionysius, the Greek god of wine, and an influence on the English ode An example is John Dryden's "Alexander's Feast " Much of the work of Walt Whitman is loosely dithyrambic
An ancient Athenian poetic form sung during the Dionysia (see above) The first tragedies may have originated from the dithyrambs See tragedy
A kind of lyric poetry in honor of Bacchus, usually sung by a band of revelers to a flute accompaniment; hence, in general, a poem written in a wild irregular strain