Lethe

"Forgetfulness." One of the five rivers of the underworld. The souls of all the dead are obliged to drink from its waters, so that they may forget everything said and done when alive (oblivionis amnis or aqua Lethes).1

The other rivers are the Styx, the Phlegethon, the Acheron, and the Cocytus.

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References

Notes

  1. Ovid. Letters from the Black Sea, 2, 4, 23.

Sources

  • C. Valerius Flaccus. Argonautica viii, 84 ff.
  • Ovid. Metamorphoses xi, 602 ff.
  • Virgil. Aeneid vi, 705 ff.