Within Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, a plethora of formal literary features are prevalent throughout. Features such as characterization, imagery, and dialogue all have a variety of impacts on the content of The Iliad, but none as much as foreshadowing. Foreshadowing occurs frequently throughout the poem, with several noteworthy events having been alluded to prior to their occurrence. Foreshadowing in The Iliad plays many roles, with its most significant being its allusion to fate. Fate plays a profound role in Homer’s epic and is one of its central themes. The reader is constantly reminded of how it is impossible to escape one’s fate and foreshadowing is used to hammer this idea home. Events such as Hector’s death and the subsequent desecration of his body, Achilles’ return to battle, and Achilles’ eventual death are all key events centered around fate that are foreshadowed. Thus, the formal feature of foreshadowing in The Iliad affects the theme of fate in a important way by cementing the principle that one’s fate cannot be escaped or changed.
The death of Patroclus as the hands of Hector during Book XIV plays a profound role in foreshadowing multiple central events that occur later during The Iliad. The two greater events that are foretold are the return of Achilles to the battlefield and the death of Hector. Another lesser event is foreshadowed, that being the desecration of Hector’s lifeless corpse by Achilles. Examining the foreshadowing of both the return of Achilles to