by Saturn » Thu Apr 28, 2005 9:19 pm
There were actually four rivers in the Classical underworld, Lethe being just one of them and Lethe is traditionally associated with forgetfulness and loss of memory.
“…along the banks
Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams:
Abhored Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, named of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon,
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
Far off from these, a slow and silent stream,
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.”
Milton, Paradise Lost, Bk II 574-86.
"Oh what a misery it is to have an intellect in splints".