Also 6 Læthe, 7 Lethee. [L. Lēthē, a use of Gr. λήθη forgetfulness, f. ληθ-, ablaut-var. of λαθ-, root of λανθάνεσθαι to forget.
In Gr. Λήθη is not the name of the river, though it occurs as a personification; the river is Λήθης ὔδωρ ‘water of Lethe.’]
1. Gr. Myth. A river in Hades, the water of which produced, in those who drank it, forgetfulness of the past. Hence, the ‘waters of oblivion’ or forgetfulness of the past.
1567. Gismond of Salern, II. Chorus (Brandl Quellen 560). The flood of Lethe can not wash out thy fame.
1593. Peele, Hon. Garter, C 3 b. The Carle Obliuion stolne from Læthes lake.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 250. So in the Lethe of thy angry soule, Thou drowne the sad remembrance of those wrongs, Which thou supposest I haue done to thee.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 583. Farr off from these a slow and silent stream, Lethe the River of Oblivion roules Her watrie Labyrinth.
1709. Tatler, No. 63, ¶ 5. Who had long since been drowned in the Whirlpools of Lethe.
1872. W. R. Greg, Enigmas Life, 191. Severances of Soul for which there is neither balm nor lethe.
1883. R. W. Dixon, Mano, I. viii. 20. Thou poppy, that of Lethe art the flower.
¶ 2. [? Influenced by L. lēt(h)um.] Death. rare–1.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., III. i. 206. Heere was’t thou bay’d, braue Hart, Heere did’st thou fall, and heere thy Hunters stand Sign’d in thy Spoyle, and Crimson’d in thy Lethee.
3. attrib. and Comb., as Lethe-flood, lake, wharf; Lethe-wards adv.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., March, 23. Tho will we little Love awake, That nowe sleepeth in Lethe lake.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 33. And duller should’st thou be then the fat weede That rots it selfe in ease, on Lethe Wharfe.
1613. J. Dennys, Secr. Angling, III. xxiii. As if that Lethe-floud ran euery where.
1820. Keats, Ode to Nightingale, 4. As though of hemlock I had drunk,… One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk.
