stasimon
Sign in to savealt=The Orestes Papyrus, a fragment of lines 338-344 from the first stasimon of Orestes by Euritides, dated to the third century BCE|thumb|The Orestes Papyrus, a fragment of lines 338-344 from the first stasimon of Orestes by [[Euripides, dated to the third century BCE]] A Stasimon () in Greek tragedy is a stationary song composed of strophes and antistrophes that is performed by the chorus in the orchestra (, "place where the chorus dances").
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alt=The Orestes Papyrus, a fragment of lines 338-344 from the first stasimon of Orestes by Euritides, dated to the third century BCE|thumb|The Orestes Papyrus, a fragment of lines 338-344 from the first stasimon of Orestes by [[Euripides, dated to the third century BCE]] A Stasimon () in Greek tragedy is a stationary song composed of strophes and antistrophes that is performed by the chorus in the orchestra (, "place where the chorus dances").
Aristotle states in the Poetics (1452b23) that each choral song (or melos) of a tragedy is divided into two parts: the parodos () and the stasimon. He defines the latter as "a choral song without anapaests or trochaics". This comment about the absence of anapest and trochee has been interpreted to mean that the music was not based on the usual “walking” meters, since the chorus sings the stasimon while remaining in the orchestra. After making its entrance singing the parodos, it does not usually leave the orchestra until the end of the play.