Lethe


In Greek mythology, Lethe was one of the rivers of the underworld of Hades. In Classical Greek, the word lethe literally means "forgetting", "forgetfulness". The river is also known as Amelēs Potamos, or the "river of unmindfulness".
The Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. The river was often associated with Lethe, the personification of forgetfulness and oblivion, who was the daughter of Eris.

Mythology

Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld; the other four are Acheron, Cocytus, Phlegethon and Styx. In myth, the shades of the dead were only able to be reincarnated after they drank from the Lethe which would wash away all their memories.

Location

The river Lethe was said to be located next to Hades's palace in the underworld under a cypress tree. Orpheus would give some shades a password to tell Hades's servants which would allow them to drink instead from the Mnemosyne, which was located under a poplar tree. According to Statius, Lethe bordered Elysium, the final resting place of the virtuous. Ovid wrote that the river flowed through the cave of Hypnos, god of sleep, where its murmuring would induce drowsiness.

Role in religion and philosophy

Some ancient Greeks believed that souls were made to drink from the river before being reincarnated, so that they would not remember their past lives. The Myth of Er in Book X of Plato's Republic tells of the dead arriving at a barren waste called the "plain of Lethe", through which the river Ameles runs. It states that those who drank from the river would drink until they forgot everything unless they had been "saved by wisdom."
A few mystery religions taught the existence of another river, the Mnemosyne; those who drank from the Mnemosyne would remember everything and attain omniscience. Initiates were taught that they would receive a choice of rivers to drink from after death, and to drink from Mnemosyne instead of Lethe.
These two rivers are attested in several verse inscriptions on gold plates dating to the 4th century BC and onward, found at Thurii in Southern Italy and elsewhere throughout the Greek world. There were rivers of Lethe and Mnemosyne at the oracular shrine of Trophonius in Boeotia, from which worshippers would drink before making oracular consultations with the god. An , said to be dated from between the second and third century B.C., warns readers to avoid the Lethe and to seek the Mnemosyne instead. Drinkers of the Lethe's water would not be quenched of their thirst, often causing them to drink more than necessary.
More recently, Martin Heidegger used "lēthē" to symbolize not only the "concealment of Being" or "forgetting of Being", but also the "concealment of concealment", which he saw as a major problem of modern philosophy. Examples are found in his books on Nietzsche and on Parmenides. Philosophers since, such as William J. Richardson have expanded on this school of thought.

Real rivers

According to Strabo, the Lima river, located between modern-day Norte Region, Portugal, and Galicia, Spain was also known as the River of Lethe in antiquity. The river got this name after an expedition made by a group of Celts and the Turduli during which they got into a disagreement and the Celts lost their chieftain causing them to scatter and settle in place. The river was also said to have the same properties of memory loss as the legendary Lethe River. In 138 BCE, the Roman general Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus sought to dispose of the myth, as it impeded his military campaigns in the area. He was said to have personally crossed the Lima, and then called his soldiers from the other side, one by one, by name. The soldiers, astonished that their general remembered their names, crossed the river as well without fear. This act proved that the Lima was not as dangerous as the local myths described.
In Cádiz, Spain, the river Guadalete was originally named "Lethe" by local Greek and Phoenician colonists who, about to go to war, solved instead their differences by diplomacy and named the river Lethe to forever forget their former differences. When the Arabs conquered the region much later, their name for the river became Guadalete from the Arabic phrase وادي لكة meaning "River of Forgetfulness".
In Alaska, a river which runs through the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is called the River Lethe. It is located within the Katmai National Park and Preserve in southwest Alaska. The name was inspired by the river from Greek mythology and chosen by R. F. Griggs in 1917.''''

Art

  • A vase painting done around 330 BCE shows Hypnos, the personification of sleep, holding his staff that in myth is said to be dipped in the Lethe's waters.
  • John Roddam Spencer Stanhope depicts a procession of individuals going to the Lethe in his 1880 painting The Waters of the Lethe by the Plains of Elysium.