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Lethe

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
Lethe (lē`thē), in Greek mythology, river of forgetfulness in Hades. The dead drank from Lethe upon their arrival in the underworld.

Lethe

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.


Lethe
river of Hades which induced forgetfulness. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 687; Br. Lit.: Paradise Lost; Rom. Lit.: Aeneid]


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The rosemary nods upon the grave; The lily lolls upon the wave; Wrapping the fog about its breast, The ruin moulders into rest; Looking like Lethe, see
Whereby you may see, that the river of Lethe runneth as well above ground as below.
"I know not Lethe nor Nepenthe," remarked he; "but I have learned many new secrets in the wilderness, and here is one of them -- a recipe that an Indian taught me, in requital of some lessons of my own, that were as old as Paracelsus.
 
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