Myth & LegendGreek → English
Lethe
/ˈliːθi/proper noun
The river of the underworld whose water erases memory, and by extension oblivion itself.
The Greek roots
λήθη
lḗthē
forgetfulness, oblivion
Literally: “forgetfulness”
Follow a root:λήθη3 words
The story of the word
In Plato's myth of Er the souls waiting to be reborn camp on the plain of Forgetting and drink from the river, and the one man who refuses the water is the one who can tell the story afterwards. Λήθη comes from a verb meaning to escape notice, and its negation is ἀλήθεια, the ordinary Greek word for truth, which is therefore built as un-forgetting. Heidegger made a career out of that observation. Lethargy is the same root wearing everyday clothes.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
lethargyalethic
In a sentence
Whole decades of the firm's history had gone into Lethe with the retiring partners.
He drank as if trying to find Lethe at the bottom of it.