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[250] It is commonly said that in this phrase πρόσσω refers to the past (as that which is before our eyes), ὀπίσσω to the future. It is however very doubtful if this can be maintained. “πρόσω” in later Greek refers to the future, as with us; it is not elsewhere in H. used in a temporal sense. “ὀπίσσω” when temporal is always used of the future (3.160, 3.411, 4.37, and often). It seems therefore that the words are rather to be taken locally, of a man who takes a ‘wide view,’ and does not fix his attention solely on what is just in front of him. The other instances are 1.343, 3.109,Od. 24.452. The same idea is repeated in “ἀμφὶ μάλα φράζεσθε”, 254.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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