Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Ode (from the Ancient Greek ) is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist. It is most likely that the Greek odes gradually lost their musical character; they were originally accompanied with the aulos, and then declaimed without any music at all. The ode, as it was practiced by the Romans, returned to the lyrical form of the Lesbian lyricists. This was exemplified, exquisitely, by Horace and Catullus; the odes of Horace deliberately imitated the Greek lyricists such as Alcaeus and Anacreon, and the poetry of Catullus was particularly inspired by Sappho.