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[272] ἀπ᾽ οὔατος, far from my hearing; cf. 22.454; there the phrase is more natural with “ἔπος”, while here nothing audible has been mentioned. The words are perhaps a formula of deprecation of unlucky words, rather than a prayer that the thing mentioned may not happen: ‘let the word I have spoken be removed from my ear,’ i.e. let it be taken as unsaid, so far as the omen is concerned. In that case ὧδε is less appropriate, and probably is another sign that the phrase is borrowed here. The emphatic position of Τρώων, too, by no means corresponds to the importance of the word.

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

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