The reader or audience knows something the character does not, so that the character's words and deeds take on a meaning he himself does not perceive.
In the Odyssey
many birds walk under the rays of the sun, and not all of them carry a sign; as for Odysseus, he died far away.
Eurymachus confidently states that Odysseus "died far away," and the reader already knows, from the previous book, that he is alive and held on an island. The suitor's certainty, at the moment he tries to dismiss the sign, therefore takes on a meaning he himself does not perceive.
Book II: The assembly in Ithaca, Eurymachus
Telemachus, what word has slipped past the fence of your teeth! A god, if he wishes, easily saves a man, even from far away.
Book III: Telemachus in Pylos, Athena, in the figure of Mentor
Alas, what land of mortals have I reached this time? Will they be violent, savage, and unjust, or hospitable, with minds that fear the gods?
Book XIII: The arrival in Ithaca, Odysseus
for hateful to me, as much as the gates of Hades, is the man who, yielding to poverty, tells falsehoods.
Book XIV: In Eumaeus's hut, Odysseus
and the gods have given me still other sorrows and groans: for, weeping and grieving for my master, who is like a god, I sit here and raise fat pigs for others to eat, while he, longing for food, perhaps wanders among peoples and cities of strange tongue.
Book XIV: In Eumaeus's hut, Eumaeus
with its tail it wagged and dropped both ears, but it could no longer come close to its master; and Odysseus, looking aside, wiped away a tear,
Book XVII: The beggar in the palace, the narrator
the gods too, resembling strangers from other lands, taking on forms of every kind, roam the cities, observing the lawlessness and the good order of men.
Book XVII: The beggar in the palace, one of the suitors
if Odysseus were to come and reach his native land, at once the doors, however wide they were, would be too narrow for you, as you fled through the vestibule out into the open.
Book XVIII: Irus and the suitors, Odysseus
he told many lies, resembling truths; and, while she listened, tears ran and her skin melted away.
Book XIX: Penelope and the scar, the narrator
courage, daughter of Icarius, famed from afar; this is not a dream, but a good vision, which will be fulfilled for you. The geese are the suitors; and I, who was before the eagle, have now come back, your husband, who will bring a shameful fate on all the suitors.
Book XIX: Penelope and the scar, the dream eagle, in Penelope's voice
for drinking wine; death was not in his mind. Who would imagine that a single man among so many guests, however strong he was, would bring on him an evil death and black doom?
Book XXII: The slaughter of the suitors, the narrator
Eurycleia, spread for him the firm bed outside the solid room that he himself built; there, after carrying the firm bed outside, lay bedding on it, with fleeces, cloaks, and shining coverlets. So she spoke, testing her husband.
Book XXIII: The bed of olive wood, Penelope
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