River Lethe in popular culture River Lethe in popular culture In Classical Greek, Lethe (Λήθη; , ) literally means "forgetfulness" or "concealment" and is related to the Greek word for "truth": "a-lethe-ia" (αλήθεια), meaning "un-forgetfulness" or "un-concealment". The River Lethe in Greek Mythology has appeared many times in popular culture since the times of ancient Greece. Walter Savage Landor transforms into substance the metaphor that time takes flight when he places a few drops of Lethe's waters on wing: On love, on grief, on every human thing, Time sprinkles Lethe's water with his wing. In "The Divine Comedy", the stream of Lethe flows to the
Isle of the Dead (Zelazny novel) which is responding to a call for help from a friend, Ruth Laris. In the course of investigating her disappearance, he receives another message that he will find all his friends "on the Isle of the Dead". The message is in Pei'an, addressed to "Shimbo" (the name of the Pei'an god connected with Sandow) and signed by "Belion" (Shimbo's traditional enemy in Pei'an mythology). Sandow soon learns that somebody has been stealing the memory records and tissue samples of people who died on Earth. These things are required of everyone who lives on Earth, so they can be recalled to