Lethe

See also:letheandLéthé

Translingual

Letheeuropa

Etymology

(Thisetymologyis missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium.)

Proper noun

Lethef

1. A taxonomicgenuswithin thefamilyNymphalidae–butterfliesof southeastern Asia and North America, calledtree browns,wood browns,andforesters.

Hypernyms

• (genus):Eukaryota– superkingdom;Animalia– kingdom;Bilateria– subkingdom;Protostomia– infrakingdom;Ecdysozoa– superphylum;Arthropoda– phylum;Hexapoda– subphylum;Insecta– class;Pterygota– subclass;Neoptera– infraclass;Lepidoptera– order;Glossata– suborder;Heteroneura– infraorder;Ditrysia– division;Cossina– section;Bombycina– subsection;Papilionoidea– superfamily;Papilioniformes– series;Nymphalidae– family;Satyrinae- subfamily;Satyrini- tribe;Lethina- subtribe

Hyponyms

• (genus):Lethe europa(bamboo treebrown) - type species

References

• Lethe(butterfly)on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Letheon Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Letheon Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

English

Etymology

FromLatinLēthē,fromAncient GreekΛήθη(Lḗthē).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):/ˈliːθi/

  • Audio(Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes:-iːθi

Proper noun

Lethe

1. (Greekmythology)The personification ofoblivion,daughter ofEris.
2. (Greekmythology)The river which flows throughHadesfrom which the souls of the dead drank so that they would forget their time on Earth.

   Coordinate terms:Acheron,Cocytus,Eridanos,Phlegethon,Styx

   • 1740,David Garrick,Lethe: or Aesop in the Shade‎^[1],published1782:

     No wonder these mortal Folks have so many Complaints,[…]if they were dead now, and to be settled here for ever, they'd be damn'd before they'd make such a Rout come over— “But care, I suppose, is thirsty; and till they have drench’d themselves withLethe,there will be no quiet among ’em” however, I’ll e’en to work; and so, friend Æsop, and brother Mercury, good bye to ye.

   • 1820,John Keats,Ode to a Nightingale:

     My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, / Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains / One minute past, andLethe-wards had sunk:

   • 1837,Thomas Carlyle, chapter IV, inThe French Revolution: A History[…],volume I (The Bastille), London:Chapman and Hall,→OCLC,book IV (States-General):

     For two-and-twenty years he [Doctor Guillotin], unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine, see nothing but guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx andLethe;his name like to outlive Cæsar’s.

   • 1890,William Booth,chapter 6, inIn Darkest England and the Way Out‎^[2]:

     A well-fed man is not driven to drink by the craving that torments the hungry; and the comfortable do not crave for the boon of forgetfulness. Gin is the onlyLetheof the miserable.

   • 1891,Oscar Wilde,“The Critic as Artist”,inIntentions:

     When we have done penance, and are purified, and have drunk of the fountain ofLetheand bathed in the fountain of Eunoe, the mistress of our soul raises us to the Paradise of Heaven.

   • 2015,Peter E. Meltzer,The Thinker's Thesaurus,W. W. Norton & Company,→ISBN:

     oblivion n.:Lethe.In Greek mythology,Lethe(pronounced LEEthee) is one of the several rivers of Hades. Those who drink from it experience complete forgetfulness. Today it is used to refer to one in an oblivious or forgetful state.

Derived terms

• Lethean

Related terms

• lethargy,lethargic

Translations

personification of oblivion

• Finnish:Lethe(fi)
• French:Léthé(fr)m
• German:Lethe(de)f
• Greek:Λήθη(el)f(Líthi)

  Ancient:Λήθηf(Lḗthē)

• Inuktitut:ᓖᑎ(liiti)
• Italian:Letem
• Japanese:レーテー(ja)(Rētē),レテ(Rete)
• Korean:레테(Rete)
• Latin:Lethe
• Portuguese:Letem
• Russian:Ле́та(ru)f(Léta)
• Spanish:Lete(es)m,Leteo(es)m

Anagrams

• Ethel,Leeth,Theel,ethel

German

Etymology

BorrowedfromLatinLēthē.

Proper noun

Lethef(genitiveLethesorLethe)

1. (mythology,literary)Lethe
   • 1924,Thomas Mann,Der Zauberberg[The Magic Mountain], volume 1, Berlin: S. Fischer,page13:

     Zeit, sagt man, istLethe;aber auch Fernluft ist so ein Trank, und sollte sie weniger gründlich wirken, so tut sie es dafür desto rascher.

     (pleaseadd an English translationof this quotation)

Further reading

• “Lethe”inDudenonline
• “Lethe”inDigitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Latin

Etymology

BorrowedfromAncient GreekΛήθη(Lḗthē).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin)IPA^(key):/ˈleː.tʰeː/,[ˈɫ̪eːt̪ʰeː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)IPA^(key):/ˈle.te/,[ˈlɛːt̪e]

Proper noun

Lēthēfsg(genitiveLēthēs);first declension(Greek)

1. (Greekmythology)the riverLethe,the river ofoblivion

Declension

First-declensionnoun (Greek-type), with locative, singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	Lēthē
Genitive	Lēthēs
Dative	Lēthae
Accusative	Lēthēn
Ablative	Lēthē
Vocative	Lēthē
Locative	Lēthae

Derived terms

• Lēthaeus

References

• “Lethe”,inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary,Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Lethe”,inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary,New York: Harper & Brothers
• LetheinGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français,Hachette.