“μηδέ σε λήθη αἱρείτω”: Memory and care in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

Abstract

The aim of this text is to demonstrate how, in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, there is an axial relation between memory and care, insofar as the acts of “remembering” and “forgetting” can be considered fundamental ethical dimensions of Homeric society. For the notion of care, further than using contemporary reflection, which offers models of analysis, we will pursue some terms from the lexical field of “care” in Homeric poetry. However, more than observing the occurrence of words, it is important to investigate the articulation between memory and care, expressed in significant passages from both epics and which allow us to understand how, in the mental economy of Greek oral society, the act of remembering has a grammar and a particular operation, in addition to be a matter of interest and concern both for the narratives of the Iliad and the Odyssey and for the society that produced them.