The Blessing River of Forgetfulness: Lethe
What we have after living is what we ultimately remember about that life. Yet, bitter or sweet, our lives become a hazy memory after all. If we have suffered enough before we step into the other world, a river named Lethe may be there for us to erase the marks of bitterness.
Lethe is one of the five rivers flowing in the Underworld ruled by Hades, the god of the dead. It rises from the cave of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and makes a drowsy sound while flowing through the palace of Hades. Also, Lethe is identified with the spirit of forgetfulness, who is the daughter of the goddess of strife, Eris. The name Lethe derives from the Greek word Aletheia, meaning “truth”. Perhaps ironic enough to make us think of it as “forgetting the truth” or as “the truth of forgetting”.
Lethe is a river with a soul of its own, and its water has the power to erase memories, especially the saddest ones. The souls who suffer the most in the living world step into the river and drink from its water. The dark, cool water of the river pierces the bodies of the souls, burns their veins and flows within their blood… again and again… until all suffering and grief fade away and the traces of earthly life are completely gone.
Yet, Lethe does not accept every soul to its blessing water. Only those who are ready to surrender and are not afraid of drowning can step into the river. So, souls have to choose the right time to do this.
Cleansed with the water, souls get out of the river free from the misery of the past. Then these purified souls are bestowed with eternal life in a hidden world without further suffering. One last pain and the remaining days are of felicity.
Lethe has inspired countless of who are bewildered by its presence. It has made a place for itself in art, literature and music. For instance, Dante Alighieri tells Lethe as a wiper of sin in his Divine Comedy in the 14th century: “the last lost vestiges of the sins of the saved” (Inf. XXXIV.130). In the Purgatoria part of the poem, he locates Lethe on top of the Mountain of Purgatory, where the Earthly Paradise stands.
Shakespeare, in sometime between 1599 and 1601, identifies Lethe as the river of forgetfulness in a speech of the Ghost in the scene 5 of Hamlet:
“and duller should thoust be than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,”
In music, the Swedish melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity tells the identity of the river, the experiences of a soul in it and the admiration of a pure soul to it in the song Lethe, released in the album The Gallery in 1995. The song identifies Lethe as the lender of the sweet balm of the blessing of forgetfulness:
“And lend me the sweet balm and blessing
Of forgetfulness, empty and strong, Lethe”.
Perhaps the chance to be “caressed” by Lethe can bring peace to the souls as they enter the chaos of the Underworld. What a soul of sorrow seeks may be there, deep down in the merciful waters of Lethe.
