Lethe Quotes

“Space, like time, engenders forgetfulness; but it does so by setting us bodily free from our surroundings and giving us back our primitive, unattached state ... Time, we say, is Lethe; but change of air is a similar draught, and, if it works less thoroughly, does so more quickly.”
― Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

“She remembered the jackals, spirit hounds, bound to serve the delegates of Lethe.
We are the shepherds.
Alex's hand lay against the floorboards. She could feel the cool, polished wood beneath her palm. Please, she begged the house silently. I am a daughter of Lethe, and the wolf is at the door.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ninth House

“What is the dull river Lethe
I don't know, but I think it's evil
And when I drink of it I don't see stars
Instead I see the lime groves”
― Dorothea Lasky, Rome: Poems

“Suddenly I'd had Enough and this was no turn of phrase but a warm body, nervous, with a constitution I could count on like a younger brother. That's when I told my mother: on the other side it's really underdeveloped. We're going back. Really, I said: I want to go back, not possible unless Mummy who is part of me comes too. We wait in the empty street at the stop for Lethe, the only bus that runs both ways. My mother is losing patience. The bus doesn't come. It's not easy to wait for a bus you've heard is the only one that runs both ways. I check the guidebook. Neither Canto XIV of the Iliad nor Canto XI of the Odyssey mentions the place. Just what you'd expect for Lethe I tell myself. Naturally forgetfulness attracts attention to itself by means of absence and omission. But for my mother the bus not turning up is the theme of her nightmares. I explain that in this country one comes along every quarter of an hour...To signal to the vehicle that one wishes to board Oblivion Return one must fan open the grille by pressing a button and lighting up the small lantern on the top of the archway, which I did. It's the one gleam of hope in this world.”
― Hélène Cixous

“He tore his eyes from her face and looked out the window, his dark hair obscuring his expression. "I woke up next to the Lethe once- I do not remember why.”
― Heidi Hastings, Hades And Persephone: Curse Of The Golden Arrow

“Roaming around through an endless dream,
Floating down, through a petal rain.
All my sorrows painted right there to see.
If I go back another day,
I'll see all the endless pain, I've made.”
― Lindsey Park