A wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing — in ancient Greek tradition, a passionate choral hymn sung in honour of Dionysus.

Originally performed at the festival of Dionysus, the dithyramb was a communal, ecstatic form involving a chorus of fifty men and a flute accompaniment.

Considered by Aristotle to be one of the origins of Greek tragedy — as the chorus leader's role became more prominent, dialogue developed from the exchange between leader and chorus.

Used in English to describe any extravagantly enthusiastic or wildly impassioned piece of writing or speech, often with a slightly ironic tone.

Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy opens with a reading of dithyrambic poetry as the purest expression of Dionysian energy, later recanted in his own 1886 preface.