A sign, speech, or image that anticipates, sometimes only for those who reread, something that will happen later in the work.
In the Iliad
she spoke, and unfastened from her breast the embroidered belt, of many colors, where all the charms were made: in it was love, in it desire, in it the intimate conversation, the seduction that steals the wits even of one who thinks with firmness.
By saying that seduction "steals the wits even of one who thinks with firmness," the line announces what will happen to Zeus in the verses that follow. The reader who rereads recognizes in the description of the belt the advance explanation of the deception.
Book XIV: Zeus's Deception, the narrator
and he will raise up his companion Patroclus, whom illustrious Hector will kill with the spear before Ilion, after Patroclus has destroyed many other young men, and among them my son, the divine Sarpedon. Angered because of him, the divine Achilles will kill Hector.
Book XV: The Trojans at the Ships, Zeus
I will say one more thing, and keep it in your spirit: you yourself will not live long; already death and powerful fate are near you, which will subdue you at the hands of Achilles, the blameless Aeacid.
Book XVI: The Death of Patroclus, Patroclus
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