Stichomythia

As stichomythia (Greek: stichomythía ) is a dialogical speaker change from verse to verse referred to in plays, in which therefore follow very short sentences in rapid succession. By means of this stylistic device the audience is signaled the severity or urgency of the conversation. An increase of this effect, in which the single line of verse is spread over several people, is the Antilabe. A dialog in double verses Distichomythie in hemistiches Hemistichomythie called.

The stichomythia is simplified also called line speech. It takes place mainly in Greek tragedy use, such as in Oedipus the King by Sophocles.

Often it serves the process of Anagnorisis, so finding the truth, and is used in interrogation similar situations or in debates.

In Goethe's Faust, there are examples of stichomythia.

Distichomythie

Distichomythie (Greek: distichomythía ), however, refers to a consist of two lines of verse, ie from double verses, change existing speech.

Example ( Goethe, Faust I):

• Rhetoric
• Prosody