Also rarely stichomuthia. [mod.L. a. Gr. στιχομῡθία, f. στίχο-ς STICHOS + μῡθ-ος speech, talk.] In classical Greek Drama, dialogue in alternate lines, employed in sharp disputation, and characterized by antithesis and rhetorical repetition or taking up of the opponent’s words. Also applied to modern imitations of this.
1861. Paley, Æschylus (ed. 2), Prometh., 640. It is not unlikely that a verse has been lost, which preserved the continuity of the stichomythia.
1914. Blackw. Mag., June, 855/1. Take, for instance, the passage of dialogue between Richard and Queen Elizabeth in ‘Richard III.,’ as vivid a piece of stichomuthia as the English drama has to show.
