Carpe Diem

By acmatos

Ponte de Lima again

Let me (re)introduce you to my hometown Ponte de Lima, in the north of Portugal.

From Wikipedia:
"Ponte de Lima is located in the southern bank of the Lima, a small river with sources in Spain.
One of the oldest towns in Portugal (founded on the 4th March of 1125)[2], it was historically significant as a Roman settlement in the road from Braga to Santiago de Compostela and Lugo, and the first place in Portugal getting a municipal chart."


What you see in the photo is the Medieval part of the bridge over the Lima.
On the left, there's a statue of Decimus Junius Brutus, a Roman general, that evokes the legend of the Lima River as the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness.
On the other side of the river (not shown on the picture), there's a group of statues representing his Roman soldiers.

Again from Wiki:
"In Greek mythology, Lethe (...) was one of the five rivers of Hades. Also known as the Ameles potamos (river of unmindfulness), the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld, where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. Lethe was also the name of the Greek spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion, with whom the river was often identified.
In Classical Greek, the word Lethe literally means "oblivion," "forgetfulness," or "concealment". It is related to the Greek word for "truth", aletheia, meaning "un-forgetfulness" or "un-concealment".
(...)
Amongst authors in Antiquity, the tiny Limia River between Northern Portugal and Galicia (Spain) was said to have the same properties of memory loss as the legendary Lethe River. In 138 BC, the Roman general Decimus Junius Brutus sought to dispose of the myth, as it impeded his military campaigns in the area. He was said to have crossed the Limia and then called his soldiers on the other side, one by one, by name. The soldiers, astonished that their general remembered their names, crossed the river as well without fear. This act proved that the Limia was not as dangerous as the local myths described. In Alaska, a river which runs through the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is called River Lethe."

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