Lethe, also known as Lesmosyne, was one of the Greek underworld rivers, and particularly the river of unmindfulness (Amelēs potamos): it gained its properties because it flowed around the cave of Hypnos, the god of sleep, son of Night and brother of Death. Whoever drinks from this river experiences forgetfulness. Interestingly enough, though, the Greek word for “truth” is aletheia (ἀλήθεια), which literally is “un-forgetfulness”. If being truthful means remembering, forgetting might not be such a good thing after all.
As it often happens, this concept is lost and subverted in the Roman world: drinking Lethe’s water was a requirement to the shades of the dead, in order to forget their earthly life, and we see this scene in book VI of the Aeneid.
The souls that throng the flood
Are those to whom, by fate, are other bodies ow’d:
In Lethe’s lake they long oblivion taste,
Of future life secure, forgetful of the past.
Lethe is sometimes personified or connected to a goddess. Hesiod identifies her as the daughter of Eris (Strife) in his Theogony, making her the sister of Ponos (Hardship), Limos (Starvation), Algea (Pains), Hysminai (Battles), Makhai (Wars), Phonoi (Murders), Androktasiai (Manslaughters), Neikea (Quarrels), Pseudea (Lies), Logoi (Stories), Amphillogiai (Disputes), Dysnomia (Anarchy), Ate (Ruin), Horkos (Oath).
A merry crowd indeed.
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