22 February 1984

Abstract

FOR CERTAIN REASONS (BECAUSE, it is true, some people have asked me) I am not going to talk about the Cynics today, but next week. I would like instead to make a link between what I was telling you last week with regard to Socrates and the Apology and what I will tell you next week with regard to the Cynics. That is to say, I will speak to you about the Laches. Before this, a short comment [concerning, first,] what I was telling you about Dumézil’s book and, second, the mission of epimeleia and the root of this word. The two things are directly linked moreover, since it concerns Dumézil. I have had this question [in mind]: what is the root of the series of terms I have spoken about on several occasions? There is the word melo-, which you find above all in the impersonal form of melei moi (I care about; or more precisely: it concerns me, since it is impersonal), and then a whole series of other words: the noun epimeleia, the verb epimelein or epimeleisthai, the adjective amelēs (careless), the adverb amelo-s (carelessly), and the noun epimeletēs (the person who cares for, who looks after, and which often has a fairly precise meaning in Greek institutions: it is a quasi-official responsibility of being the supervisor of something; at any rate [the term] may refer to a precise responsibility). Where does this series of words come from? The root itself is clear, but what does it refer to?