Forgetting to Remember: From Benjamin to Blanchot

Let us begin with Lethe, a river in Hades whose waters caused forget-fulness to dead souls who drank from it. The daughter of Eris, Lethe was the sister of Thanatos (death), and with Zeus she bore the Graces/Charites. According to some myths, she was the mother of Diony-sus. She was the goddess of oblivion and the river with the same name. When someone died and went to Hades, they had to drink from her water so they would forget their previous existence on earth.