Editing Lethe

{{Short description|River of forgetfulness in the Greek underworld}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Leath|Water of Leith}}
{{Greek underworld}}

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Lethe''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|iː|θ|iː}}; [[Ancient Greek]]: {{lang|grc|Λήθη}} ''Lḗthē''; {{IPA|grc|lɛ̌ːtʰɛː|lang|link=yes}}, {{IPA|el|ˈliθi|label=[[Modern Greek]]:}}) was one of [[Greek underworld#Rivers|the rivers of the underworld of Hades]]. Also known as the ''Amelēs potamos'' (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 (daughter of Eris)|Lethe]], the personification of forgetfulness and oblivion, who was the daughter of [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]] (Strife).

In Classical Greek, the word ''[[wikt:Lethe|lethe]]'' ([[wikt:λήθη#Ancient Greek|λήθη]]) literally means "forgetting", "forgetfulness".<ref>{{LSJ|lh/qh|λήθη|ref}}.</ref>

==Infernal river==
Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, is one of the five rivers of the [[Greek underworld]]; the other four are [[Acheron]] (the river of sorrow), [[Cocytus]] (the river of lamentation), [[Phlegethon]] (the river of fire)  and [[Styx]] (the river that separates Earth and the Underworld). 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.

The [[Shade (mythology)|shades of the dead]] were required to drink the waters of the Lethe in order to forget their earthly life. In the ''[[Aeneid]]'' (VI.703-751), [[Virgil]] writes that it is only when the dead have had their memories erased by the Lethe that they may be [[reincarnation|reincarnated]].

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 (the Greek term for ghosts or spirits) a password to tell Hades's servants which would allow them to drink instead from the [[Mnemosyne]] (the pool of memory), which was located under a poplar tree.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last=Graves|first=Robert|title=Greek Gods and Heroes|publisher=RosettaBooks|year=2014|pages=16}}</ref> An [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1843-0724-3 Orphic inscription], 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.<ref name=":02" />

==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 ''[[The Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'' tells of the dead arriving at a barren waste called the "plain of Lethe", through which the river ''Ameles'' ("careless") runs. "Of this they were all obliged to drink a certain quantity," Plato wrote, "and those who were not saved by wisdom drank more than was necessary; and each one as he drank forgot all things."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.11.x.html|title=The Internet Classics Archive - The Republic by Plato|website=classics.mit.edu}}</ref> A few [[Greco-Roman mysteries|mystery religion]]s 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.

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]] (Vol 1, p.&nbsp;194) and on [[Parmenides]]. Philosophers since, such as [[William J. Richardson]] have expanded on this school of thought.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Babich|first=B.E.|title=From Phenomenology to Thought, Errancy, and Desire: Essays in Honor of William J. Richardson, S.J.|year=2013|pages=267–273}}</ref>

The goddess Lethe has been compared to the goddess [[Meng Po]] of Chinese Mythology, who would wait on the Bridge of Forgetfulness to serve dead souls soup which would erase their memories before they were reincarnated.<ref>Murdock, Jacob M. ''Lethe and the Twin Bodhisattvas of Forgiveness and Forgetfulness''. Pacifica Graduate Institute, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017. 10258489.</ref>

== Real rivers ==
[[File:Rio Lima 2.JPG|thumb|right|Lima Bridge on Lima River in [[Ponte de Lima]], [[Portugal]]]]

Amongst authors in antiquity,<ref>Thayer, Roman E. "Book III, Chapter 3". ''Strabo Geography''. University of Chicago. Retrieved 12 October 2019.</ref> the tiny [[Lima river]] between [[Norte Region, Portugal]], and [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia, Spain]], was said to have the same properties of memory loss as the legendary Lethe River, being mistaken for it.<ref>[[Strabo]] iii. p. 153; [[Mela]], iii, 1; [[Pliny the Elder]] H.N. iv. 22 s. 35</ref> 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,<ref>[[Livy]], Periochae [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/livy/livy-periochae-51-55/#55.10 55.10]</ref> and then called his soldiers from the other side, one by one, by name.<ref>[https://www.altominho.pt/pt/viver/lendas-e-tradicoes/lenda-do-rio-lima/]</ref> 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'' (Wadi lakath) 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.

== References in literature ==

{{main|River Lethe in popular culture}}

[[File:The-waters-of-lethe-by-the-plains-of-elysium-1880.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[John Roddam Spencer Stanhope]]'s ''The Waters of the Lethe by the Plains of Elysium.''<ref>Roddam Spencer Stanhope, John. "The Waters of the Lethe by the Plains of Elysium." ''WikiArt,'' 1880, [https://www.wikiart.org/en/john-roddam-spencer-stanhope/the-waters-of-lethe-by-the-plains-of-elysium-1880 URL].</ref>]]

* In 29 BCE, [[Virgil]] wrote about Lethe in his didactic hexameter poem, the ''[[Georgics]]''. Lethe is also referenced in Virgil's epic Latin poem, ''[[Aeneid]]'', when the title protagonist travels to Lethe to meet the ghost of his father in Book VI of the poem.

{{blockquote|<poem>
The souls that throng the flood
Are those to whom, by fate, are other bodies ow'd:
In Lethe's lake they long oblivion taste,
Of future life secure, forgetful of the past.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.6.vi.html |title=The Internet Classics Archive - The Aeneid by Virgil |website=classics.mit.edu}}</ref></poem>}}

* Ovid includes a description of Lethe as a stream that puts people to sleep in his work ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' (8 AD)
* In the ''[[Purgatorio]]'', the second ''cantica'' of [[Dante Alighieri]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the Lethe is located in the [[Purgatorio#The Earthly Paradise|Earthly Paradise]] atop the Mountain of Purgatory. The piece, written in the early 14th century, tells of Dante's immersion in the Lethe so that his memories are wiped of sin (''Purg''. XXXI). The Lethe is also mentioned in the ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', the first part of the ''Comedy'', as flowing down to Hell from Purgatory to be frozen in the ice around Satan, "the last lost vestiges of the sins of the saved"<ref>[[John Ciardi]], ''Purgatorio'', notes on Canto XXVII, pg. 535</ref> (''Inf.'' XXXIV.130). He then proceeds to sip from the waters of the river [[Eunoe]] so that the soul may enter heaven full of the strength of his or her life's good deeds.
* [[William Shakespeare]] references Lethe's identity as the "river of forgetfulness" in a speech of the Ghost in Act 1 Scene 5 of ''[[Hamlet]]'': "and duller should thoust be than the fat weed / That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf," written sometime between 1599 and 1601.
* In [[John Milton|John Milton's]] ''[[Paradise Lost]]'', written in 1667, his first speech in Satan describes how "The associates and copartners of our loss, Lie thus astonished on ''the oblivious pool''", referencing Lethe.<ref>[[John Milton]], ''[[Paradise Lost]]'', Kastan Ed., Book 1, lines 265-270.</ref>
*The English poet [[John Keats]] references the river in poems "[[Ode to a Nightingale]]" and "[[Ode on Melancholy]]" written in 1819.
* In [[Faust, Part Two]], the titular character, Faust, is bathed "in the dew of Lethe" so that he would forget what happened in [[Faust, Part One]]. A remorseful Faust would not work well with the rest of Part 2. The forgetting powers of Lethe allowed him to forget the ending of the Gretchen drama and move on to the story of part 2.
* The French poet [[Charles Baudelaire]] referred to the river in his poem "Spleen", published posthumously in 1869. The final line is "Où coule au lieu de sang l'eau verte du Léthé" which one translator renders as "... in whose veins flows the green water of Lethe ..." (the reference offers a few more English translations).<ref>Baudelaire, Charles. "Spleen." ''Charles Baudelaire's'' ''Fleurs De Mal / Flowers of Evil,'' Fleurs de Mal. 1869. https://fleursdumal.org/poem/160 Accessed June 6th, 2021.</ref> Baudelaire also wrote a poem called "Lethe".

==See also==
* [[The Golden Bough (mythology)]]
* [[Meng Po]]

==Notes==

{{Reflist}}

== References ==
{{wiktionary|Lethe}}
{{EB1911 poster|Lethe}}
* Caldwell, Richard, ''Hesiod's Theogony'', Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). {{ISBN|978-0-941051-00-2}}.
* [[Hesiod]], ''Theogony'' from ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica'' with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0129 Greek text available from the same website].
* [[Statius|Publius Papinius Statius]]'', The Achilleid'' translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928. [http://www.theoi.com/Text/StatiusAchilleid1A.html Online version at the theoi.com]
* Publius Papinius Statius, ''The Achilleid. Vol. II''. John Henry Mozley. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1928. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0500 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.]
* [[Strabo]], ''The Geography of Strabo.'' Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
* Strabo, ''Geographica'' edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0197 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Rivers of the Greek underworld]]
[[Category:Greek underworld]]
[[Category:Divine Comedy]]