Strophe and antistrophe are the words used for stanzas in a choral ode: strophe 1 and antistrophe 1, for example, are a matched set: they correspond metrically (that is, they have the same number of syllables and an identical arrangement of long and short syllables, which is characteristic of ancient Greek verse, as opposed to alternation of stressed and unstressed as in English and many modern European languages). Presumably, the chorus also danced identical (or reversed) steps in the strophe and antistrophe. In the parodos of the Alcestis, the chorus is divided into two hemichoroi. Their question and answer technique is able to give us needed information; in particular, the information that the citizen body, represented by the chorus, is aware of what Alcestis has undertaken to do for her husband.