hysteron proteron

The hysteron proteron ("latter before") is a rhetorical device in which the first key word of the idea refers to something that happens temporally later than the second key word. The goal is to call attention to the more important idea by placing it first.

The standard example comes from the Aeneid of Virgil, Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus, or "let us die, and charge into the thick of the fight" (ii. 353).

An example of hysteron proteron encountered in everyday life is that of a person getting up and putting on their shoes and socks (rather than socks and shoes). Another common example is "lock and load" (whereas a bolt-action rifle must be loaded and then locked).

On a larger scale, the structure of the Odyssey also takes advantage of hysteron proteron strategies. The epic begins by narrating Telemachus' difficulties dealing with his mother's suitors and his search for information about his years-missing father, events that, temporally, occur nearly at the end of the overall sequence. When the poem introduces Odysseus, it does so after he has spent seven years in captivity on Calypso's island and is finally leaving; he builds a raft but is shipwrecked. He relates to his hosts, the Phaeacians, the adventures that brought him to this point, bringing the story up to his stay on Calpyso's island. The Phaeacians help him finish his voyage, and he returns to Ithaca where he meets up with Telemachus and, together, the two deal with the suitors, who were the poem's first main concern.

In this way, the Odyssey's use of hysteron proteron shares elements with frame narratives, which remain a popular device today in movies and fiction.

Hysteron proteron, in addition to being a rhetorical device can be used generally to describe a situation that is the reverse of the natural or logical order. "Putting the cart before the horse" and "topsy-turvydom" are examples/synonyms of hysteron proteron.^[1]

References

• Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 679–680. ISBN 0-674-36250-0. 

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