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Dramatic Irony
Definition of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved directly or indirectly, by making... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the... read full definition
Book 2
Explanation and Analysis—Two Eagles:
The Odyssey heavily foreshadows the return of Odysseus to Ithaca and his slaying of the suitors. In one instance, two eagles appear in Ithaca moments after Telemachus threatens the suitors, violently tearing each other apart in the sky in a shocking and bloody spectacle:
All were dumbstruck, watching the eagles trail from sight,
people brooding, deeply, what might come to pass . . .
Until the old warrior Halitherses,
Mastor’s son, broke the silence for them —
the one who outperformed all men of his time
at reading bird-signs [...]
“Hear me, men of Ithaca! Hear what I have to say,
though my revelations strike the suitors first of all —
a great disaster is rolling like a breaker toward their heads.
Clearly Odysseus won’t be far from loved ones any longer —
now, right now, he’s somewhere near, I tell you [...]
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