- Lethe
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—Lethean /li thee"euhn, lee"thee euhn/, Lethied, adj./lee"thee/, n.1. Class. Myth. a river in Hades whose water caused forgetfulness of the past in those who drank of it.2. (usually l.c.) forgetfulness; oblivion.[ < L < Gk, special use of léthe forgetfulness, akin to lanthánesthai to forget]
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Ancient Greek personification of oblivion.She was the daughter of Eris (Strife). Her name was also applied to a river or plain in the realm of the dead. In the Orphic mysteries it was believed that the newly dead who drank from the River Lethe would lose all memory of their past existence. The initiated were taught to drink instead from Mnemosyne, the river of Memory.* * *
(Greek: “Oblivion”), in Greek mythology, daughter of Eris (Strife) and the personification of oblivion. Lethe is also the name of a river or plain in the infernal regions.In Orphism (Orphic religion), a Greek mystical religious movement, it was believed that the newly dead who drank from the River Lethe would lose all memory of their past existence. The initiated were taught to seek instead the river of memory, Mnemosyne, thus securing the end of the transmigration of the soul. At the oracle of Trophonius near Lebadeia (modern Levadhia, Greece), which was thought to be an entrance to the underworld, there were two springs called Lethe and Mnemosyne.Aristophanes' The Frogs mentions a plain of Lethe. In Book X of Plato's The Republic the souls of the dead must drink from the “river of Unmindfulness” before rebirth. In the works of the Latin poets Lethe is one of the five rivers of the underworld.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
