[stik-uh-mith-ee-uh] 
| dramatic dialogue, as in a Greek play, characterized by brief exchanges between two characters, each of whom usually speaks in one line of verse during a scene of intense emotion or strong argumentation. |
| stich·o·myth·i·a (stĭk'ə-mĭth'ē-ə) n. An ancient Greek arrangement of dialogue in drama, poetry, and disputation in which single lines of verse or parts of lines are spoken by alternate speakers. [Greek stikhomūthiā, from stikhomūthein, to speak in alternating lines : stikhos, stich; see steigh- in Indo-European roots + mūthos, speech.] stich'o·myth'ic adj. |
stichomythia
dialogue in alternate lines, a form sometimes used in Classical Greek drama in which two characters alternate speaking single epigrammatic lines of verse. This device, which is found in such plays as Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, is often used as a means to show characters in vigorous contention or to heighten the emotional intensity of a scene. Characters may take turns voicing antithetical positions, or they may take up one another's words, suggesting other meanings or punning upon them.
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əˈmɪθ