Rhapsode

or Rhapsodist, a name given by the ancient Greeks to their wandering minstrels, who sang the Homeric and other poems. Each separate song or ballad was called a rhapsody. It was by means of the rhapsodes that these poems were preserved before they were committed to writing, and thus made generally accessible. An important step in the development of Greek tragedy was made when Thespis arranged a sort of dialogue between the leader of a chorus and a rhapsode at the Dionysian festival. The Greek rhapsode corresponds to the scald of the Scandinavians, the French trouvere, the Celtic bard, and the AngloSaxon gleeman. The word rhapsode means literally, "one who strings songs together." See Minstrel; Bard; Ballad