Stychomythia is a technique of quickfire dialogue used in Greek and Roman theatre.

An example from Aeschylus' Oresteia (trans. Morshead, 1909):

CLYTEMNESTRA: I nursed thee young; must I forego mine eld? ORESTES: Thou slew'st my father; shalt thou dwell with me? CLYTEMNESTRA: Fate bore a share in these things, O my child ORESTES: Fate also doth provide this doom for thee. CLYTEMNESTRA: Beware, O child, a parent's dying curse. ORESTES: A parent who did cast me out to ill! CLYTEMNESTRA: Not cast thee out, but to a friendly home.

Spenser uses stychomythia in The Fairie Queene, as Shakespeare does in Richard III, to express wit.

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