"carried the dead into the underworld, across the river Styx. The River Lethe was a different river in the underworld, which caused those who drank its waters to experience complete forgetfulness. The shades of the dead were required to drink the waters of the Lethe in order to forget their earthly life. In ""Story Line"", Ian Marshall suggests that the poem is written to show the differences in American life depicted by Whitman and that which faces Ginsberg in the 1950s: ""It's the distance of a century—with Civil War and the 'triumph' of the Industrial Revolution and Darwinism and Freud"
"so they would not remember their past lives. The Myth of Er in Book X of Plato's ""Republic"" tells of the dead arriving at a barren waste called the ""plain of Lethe"", through which the river ""Ameles"" (""careless"") runs. ""Of this they were all obliged to drink a certain quantity,"" Plato wrote, ""and those who were not saved by wisdom drank more than was necessary; and each one as he drank forgot all things."" A few mystery religions taught the existence of another river, the Mnemosyne; those who drank from the Mnemosyne would remember everything and attain omniscience. Initiates were"
"(VI.703-751) writes that it is only when the dead have had their memories erased by the Lethe that they may be reincarnated. Lethe was also the name of the personification of forgetfulness and oblivion, with whom the river was often associated. Hesiod's ""Theogony"" identifies her as the daughter of Eris (""strife""), and 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""), and Horkos (""Oath""). Some ancient Greeks believed that souls were made to drink from the river before being reincarnated,"
"shepherd, and Mnemosyne slept together for nine consecutive nights, thus conceiving the nine Muses. Mnemosyne also presided over a pool in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe, according to a series of 4th-century BC Greek funerary inscriptions in dactylic hexameter. Dead souls drank from Lethe so they would not remember their past lives when reincarnated. In Orphism, the initiated were taught to instead drink from the Mnemosyne, the river of memory, which would stop the transmigration of the soul. Although she was categorized as one of the Titans in the ""Theogony"", Mnemosyne did not quite fit that distinction. Titans were"
"taught that they would receive a choice of rivers to drink from after death, and to drink from Mnemosyne instead of Lethe. These two rivers are attested in several verse inscriptions on gold plates dating to the 4th century BC and onward, found at Thurii in Southern Italy and elsewhere throughout the Greek world. There were rivers of Lethe and Mnemosyne at the oracular shrine of Trophonius in Boeotia, from which worshippers would drink before making oracular consultations with the god. More recently, Martin Heidegger used ""lēthē"" to symbolize the ""concealment of Being"" or ""forgetting of Being"" that he saw"
"you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?"" (Berkeley, 1955) Billy Collins, in his poem ""Forgetfulness"", refers to ""a dark mythological riverwhose name begins with an L as far as you can recall"". in """" Charlotte Smith asks the river Lethe for forgetfulness: ""As to the sea your limpid waves you bear, <br> Can you one kind Lethean cup bestow, <br> To drink a long oblivion to my care?"" Also mentioned in Byron's poem ""Remember Thee! Remember Thee!"". In the Aeneid by Vergil, in book 6 Aeneas sees the"
"Meng Po Meng Po () is the Lady of Forgetfulness in Chinese mythology. Meng Po serves in Diyu, the Chinese realm of the dead, in the 10th court. It is her task to ensure that souls who are ready to be reincarnated do not remember their previous life or their time in hell. To this end she collects herbs from various earthly ponds and streams to make her Five Flavored Tea of Forgetfulness (). This is given to each soul to drink before they leave Diyu. The brew induces instant and permanent amnesia, and all memory of other lives is"
"to drink some of the water, in varying quantities; again, Er only watched. As they drank, each soul forgot everything. As they lay down at night to sleep each soul was lifted up into the night in various directions for rebirth, completing their journey. Er remembered nothing of the journey back to his body. He opened his eyes to find himself lying on the funeral pyre early in the morning, able to recall his journey through the afterlife. In the dialogue Plato introduces the story by explaining to his questioner, Glaucon, that the soul must be immortal, and cannot be"
"by pious relatives. Paupers and the friendless gathered for a hundred years on the near shore according to Book VI of Vergil's Aeneid. Greeks offered propitiatory libations to prevent the deceased from returning to the upper world to ""haunt"" those who had not given them a proper burial. The far side of the river was guarded by Cerberus, the three-headed dog defeated by Heracles (Roman Hercules). Passing beyond Cerberus, the shades of the departed entered the land of the dead to be judged. The five rivers of the realm of Hades, and their symbolic meanings, are Acheron (the river of"
"future Roman heroes drinking from the River Lethe. ""The drink the soothing fluid and long forgetfullness"" Emily Dickinson mentions the ""Lethe"" in her poetry (#1730 by Thomas Johnson editing). Dan Simmons' Hyperion contains a chapter titled ""The River Lethe's Taste is Bitter"", so named because the daughter of main character of the chapter suffers from a malady which causes her to age backwards, thus forgetting her life and family one day at a time. In Rick Riordan's novels, The Heroes of Olympus series and the short story Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades in The Demigod Files reference and"
"was reused in a structure in Roman Egypt. The Greek god Hades is known in Greek mythology as the king of the underworld, a place where souls live after death. The Greek god Hermes, the messenger of the gods, would take the dead soul of a person to the underworld (sometimes called Hades or the House of Hades). Hermes would leave the soul on the banks of the River Styx, the river between life and death. Charon, also known as the ferry-man, would take the soul across the river to Hades, if the soul had gold: Upon burial, the family"
"this river will forget their pain. Argyra (mythology) In Greek mythology, Argyra (; Ancient Greek: Ἀργυρᾶ) was one of the Naiads, a nymph who resided in a well. There was a city in ancient Achaea, also named Argyra, that was the site of a spring. According to legend, the nymph Argyra was in love with a shepherd named Selemnus whom she visited frequently. But when he aged and his youthful beauty vanished, she forsook him. When the boy died of grief, the goddess Aphrodite out of pity changed him into a river. There was a popular belief in Achaia that"
"The most commonly encountered in the explanation based on the ancient Greek word maenomenos (μαινόμενος), which refers to a Greek Mythology story when Herakles went out of his mind (maenomenos=frenzy, out of mind) for which Eurypides wrote the play ""Herakles Mainomenos"" (). In addition, ""menemenos"" (μενεμένος) or ""menemenus"", meant ""flood"" or ""overflow"". In the absence of modern dams and other means of waterflow control in antiquity, the Hermos River (now Gediz River) used to cause serious and frequent damages in the valley until recent times. The river was nicknamed in Turkish ""Gediz the Sorceress"" (""Cadı Gediz""). On the other hand,"
"Achelous In Greek mythology, Achelous (; Ancient Greek: Ἀχελώїoς, and later ""Achelṓios"") was originally the god of all water and the rivers of the world were viewed by many as his sinews. Later, in Hellenistic times, he was mostly relegated to the Achelous River, which is the largest river of Greece, and thus the chief of all river deities, every river having its own river spirit. Achelous was also an important deity in Etruscan mythology, intimately related to water as in the Greek tradition but also carrying significant chthonic associations. Man-faced bull iconography was first adapted to represent Achelous by"
"ancient and modern, the Greeks held complex and sometimes contradictory views about the afterlife"". Some depictions describe it as a land of utter neutrality. That is, while the inhabitants were in life neither good nor evil, so they are treated in the afterlife. Other depictions have also stated that all residents drink from the river Lethe before entering the fields, thus losing their identities. This somewhat negative outlook on the afterlife for those who make little impact was perhaps passed down to encourage militarism in Greek cultures as opposed to inaction. In fact, those who did take up arms and"
"early summer. The fountain was sacred to the Muses and it was there that Bellerophon found Pegasus (as Polyidus had claimed), drinking, and tamed him. Pirene (mythology) In Greek mythology, Pirene or Peirene (Ancient Greek: Πειρήνη means ""of the osiers""), a nymph, was either the daughter of the river god Asopus, Laconian king Oebalus, or the River god Achelous, depending on different sources. By Poseidon she became the mother of Lecheas and Cenchrias. When Cenchrias was unintentionally killed by Artemis, Pirene's grief was so profound that she became nothing but tears and turned into the fountain outside the gates of"
"was primarily a feature in the afterworld of classical Greek mythology, similar to the Christian area of Hell in texts such as ""The Divine Comedy"" and ""Paradise Lost"". The ferryman Charon often is described as having transported the souls of the newly dead across this river into the underworld. Dante put Phlegyas as ferryman over the Styx and made it the fifth circle of Hell, where the wrathful and sullen are punished by being drowned in the muddy waters for eternity, with the wrathful fighting each other. In ancient times some believed that a coin (Charon's obol) placed in the"
"planet was named as Acheron during the sequel Aliens. Acheron The Acheron (; ""Acheron"" or Ἀχερούσιος ""Acherousios""; ""Acherontas"") is a river located in the Epirus region of northwest Greece. It is long, and its drainage area is . Its source is near the village Zotiko, in the southwestern part of the Ioannina regional unit and it flows into the Ionian Sea in Ammoudia, near Parga. In ancient Greek mythology, Acheron was known as the ""river of woe"", and was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld. The word is of uncertain etymology. In the Homeric poems, the Acheron"
"and building exquisite tombs, like the pyramids of Giza, for their dead. Many of their deities were death-related, such as: Ammut, the devourer of unworthy souls; Anubis, the guardian of the Necropolis and the keeper of poisons, medicines, and herbs; and Osiris, the king of the dead. The Greek underworld, Hades, was ruled by the god Hades, and had five rivers that flowed through it. The rivers were: Acheron, river of sadness; Cocytus, river of lamentation; Lethe, river of forgetfulness; Phlegethon, river of fire; Styx, river of hate. The Underworld had attendants who, though not rulers, were important gods and"
"as a major problem of modern philosophy. Examples are found in his books on Nietzsche (Vol 1, p. 194) and on Parmenides. Many ancient Greek poems mention or describe Lethe. The river is also referenced in more recent novels and poetry. Simonides of Ceos, an ancient Greek lyrical poet, references Lethe in the sixty-seventh fragment of one of his poems. Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid, in his description of the Underworld in his ""Metamorphoses,"" includes a description of Lethe as a stream that puts people to sleep. Aeneas, the protagonist of Virgil's epic Latin poem, ""Aeneid"", travels to Lethe"
"Methe. Methe In Greek mythology, Methe was the spirit and personification of drunkenness. She entered the retinue of Dionysus and was mentioned in association with the god or other companions of his. The ""Anacreontea"" thus describes the mythological connections of Methe: """"Let us be merry and drink wine and sing of Bacchus . . . thanks to him Methe"" (Drunkenness) ""was brought forth,"" ""the Charis"" (Grace) ""was born, Lype"" (Pain) ""takes rest and Ania"" (Trouble) ""goes to sleep."""" Pausanias mentions a painting of Methe drinking wine in the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, and another one of her offering wine"
"special veneration. Potamides Potamides (; Greek: Ποταμίδες) were a type of water nymphs of Greco-Roman mythology. They were assigned as a class of nymphs of fresh water known as naiads, and as such belonged to a category that presided over rivers and streams. Potamides were identified by the names associated with the rivers of their origin such as the ""Anigrides"", ""Ismenides"", ""Amnisiades"", the ""Pactolides"" from the Pactolus river, and the ""Acheloides"" from the Achelous river. However they had their individual names and also sometimes could be distinguished by the name of the country in which they inhabited. The rivers were"
"Methe In Greek mythology, Methe was the spirit and personification of drunkenness. She entered the retinue of Dionysus and was mentioned in association with the god or other companions of his. The ""Anacreontea"" thus describes the mythological connections of Methe: """"Let us be merry and drink wine and sing of Bacchus . . . thanks to him Methe"" (Drunkenness) ""was brought forth,"" ""the Charis"" (Grace) ""was born, Lype"" (Pain) ""takes rest and Ania"" (Trouble) ""goes to sleep."""" Pausanias mentions a painting of Methe drinking wine in the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, and another one of her offering wine to"
"3 km southeast of the village Tripotamia. The river was among those mentioned by Hesiod in ""Theogony;"" they were ""all sons of Oceanus and queenly Tethys"" for, according to the image of world hydrography common to the ancients, the fresh water that welled up in springs came from the underworld caverns and pools and was connected with the salt sea. Rain fertilized crops, but the sense that its runoff filled the rivers did not figure in the Greek mythic picture. Rivers were personified and credited with wooing nymphs and human maidens and fathering children. One daughter, the nymph Metope was"
"thirsty, they met Hypsipile, who was carrying Opheltes (Greek: Ὀφέλτης), the child of the priest of Zeus and of Eurydice. While she showed the heroes the way to the nearest well, she left the child behind lying in a meadow, which during her absence was killed by a dragon. When the Seven on their return saw the accident, they slew the dragon and instituted funeral games to be held every third year. Other legends attribute the institution of the Nemean Games to Heracles, after he had slain the Nemean Lion. The alternative tradition was that he had either revived the"
"a single river, but a god of all water. The origin of the river Achelous is described by Servius: When Achelous on one occasion had lost his daughters, the Sirens, and in his grief invoked his mother Gaea, she received him to her bosom, and on the spot where she received him, she caused the river bearing his name to gush forth. Other accounts about the origin of the river and its name are given by Stephanus of Byzantium, Strabo, and Plutarch. Strabo proposes a very ingenious interpretation of the legends about Achelous, all of which according to him arose"
"Phlegethon In Greek mythology, the river Phlegethon (Φλεγέθων, English translation: ""flaming"") or Pyriphlegethon (Πυριφλεγέθων, English translation: ""fire-flaming"") was one of the five rivers in the infernal regions of the underworld, along with the rivers Styx, Lethe, Cocytus, and Acheron. Plato describes it as ""a stream of fire, which coils round the earth and flows into the depths of Tartarus"". It was parallel to the river Styx. It is said that the goddess Styx was in love with Phlegethon, but she was consumed by his flames and sent to Hades. Eventually when Hades allowed her river to flow through, they reunited."
"the water of the magical river. Achilles grew up to be a man of war who survived many great battles. One day, a poisonous arrow shot at him was lodged in his heel, killing him shortly afterwards. The death of Achilles was not mentioned in Homer's ""Iliad"", but appeared in later Greek and Roman poetry and drama concerning events after the Iliad, later in the Trojan War. In the myths surrounding the war, Achilles was said to have died from a heel wound which was the result of an arrow—possibly poisoned—shot by Paris. Classical myths attribute Achilles's invulnerability to his"
"of Dionysus. Having learned his lessons as an initiate into the mysteries, and after ritual immersion in the river Pactolus, Midas forsakes the ""bogus eternity"" of gold for spiritual rebirth. John Cuthbert Lawson, an early 20th-century folklorist whose approach was influenced by the Cambridge Ritualists, argued that both the food metaphor and the coin as payment for the ferryman were later rationalizations of the original ritual. Although single coins from inhumations appear most often inside or in the vicinity of the skull, they are also found in the hand or a pouch, a more logical place to carry a payment."
"to drink from the river Scamander, which cuts across the Trojan plain, then the city of Troy would never fall. The Achaeans never allowed the horses to drink from that river for all of them were stolen by Diomedes and Odysseus shortly after their arrival. In a different story (attributed to Pindar), Rhesus fights so well against the Achaeans that Hera sends Odysseus and Diomedes to kill him secretly at night. Another version (Virgil and Servius) says that Rhesus was given an oracle that claims he will be invincible after he and his horses drink from the Scamander. In all"
"km. In the gorge the river passes along dense vegetation and steep cliffs, waterfalls and caves. The Diakofto–Kalavryta Railway passes through the Vouraikos gorge. According to legend there was a cave on the banks of the river which was dedicated to Hercules. There pilgrims came to read their fate in the Tables of Knowledge, as they were called. The river is mentioned by Pausanias in his ""Description of Greece"". Vouraikos The Vouraikos (, , ""Erasinus"" () according to Strabo) is a river in Achaea, Greece. In ancient times it was called Erasinos. Its source is in the Aroania mountains, near"
"Cocytus Cocytus or Kokytos (, literally ""lamentation"") is a river in the underworld in Greek mythology. Cocytus flows into the river Acheron, on the other side of which lies Hades, The Underworld, the mythological abode of the dead. There are five rivers encircling Hades: the Styx, Phlegethon, Lethe, Acheron and Cocytus. The Cocytus river was one of the rivers that surrounded Hades. Cocytus, along with the other rivers related to the underworld, was a common topic for ancient authors. Of the ancient authors, Cocytus was mentioned by Dante, Virgil, Homer, Cicero, Aeschylus, Apuleius and Plato, among others. Cocytus also makes"
"used in funerary rites, together with rosemary and myrtle, and not simply to offset the smell of decay; mint was an element in the fermented barley drink called the ""kykeon"" that was an essential preparatory entheogen for participants in the Eleusinian mysteries, which offered hope in the afterlife for initiates. Minthe In Greek mythology, Minthe (also Menthe, Mintha or Mentha; or Μένθη) was a naiad associated with the river Cocytus. The ""-nth-"" element in ""menthe"" is characteristic of a class of words borrowed from a Pre-Greek language: compare ""acanthus"", labyrinth, Corinth, etc. Minthe was dazzled by Hades and made an"