death, the ritual burning, and the funeral of Achilles' fallen friend Patroclos, and it poetizes the war games instituted in honor of Achilles. The first of the games is to be the contest of the chariots. After Achilles drew lots determining the order of the warriors,
σήμηνε δὲ τέρματ᾽ Ἀχιλλεὺς
τηλόθεν ἐν λείῳ πεδίῳ: παρὰ δὲ σκοπὸν εἷσεν
ἀντίθεον Φοίνικα ὀπάονα πατρὸς ἑοῖο,
ὡς μεμνέῳτο δρόμους καὶ ἀληθείην ἀποείποι
"Achilles indicates the turn (of the course),
(letting it appear) farther in broad space, and next to the end of the course he places
the divine Phoenix, the war companion of his father,
so that he might keep the course in view and accordingly bring to word what is unconcealed."
ὡς μεμνέῳτο δρόμους—so that he might keep, i.e., so that he will not let fall away into concealment the outcome of the battle of the chariots. Here ἀλήθεια, the unconcealedness of the battle, i.e., the battle as it appears in its presence, is founded unequivocally on a μεμνέῳτο—we would say on a "not forgetting," though in that way we would falsify the matter. Indeed in the Greek language μιμνῄσκειν and μέμνημαι surely express the counter-essence to ἐπιλανθάνεσθαι. But the latter is determined on the basis of its relation to λήθη. Accordingly, in the original understanding of μιμνῄσκειν there lies the sense of keeping, and precisely the holding of the unconcealed as such. This holding is, however, not a mere be-holding or taking notice but is letting oneself be held by unconcealedness, dwelling in it as that which secures the unconcealed against the withdrawal of concealment.
Recapitulation
2) The origination of man out of the uncanny district of
withdrawing concealment. The inception of the transformation of
man's basic position. The coming to presence together of ἀλήθεια
and μέμνημαι.
Reference to Homer, Iliad, XXIII, 358ff.
Plato's myth at the conclusion of the Politeia says that man stems from the uncanny district of withdrawing concealment and in the "here" traverses a mortal course through beings in the midst of beings as a whole. Therefore, in opposition to the concealment he bears with him as the legacy of that district, when man returns to the "here," he must