Thursday, November 26, 2009

The River of Forgetfulness


Pentax K10D + Zeiss Distagon 25/2.8

Legend has it that the Roman legions refused to cross the river Lima, in Northern Portugal, since they believed this was the mythical Lethe, whose waters the dead drank to forget their past lives. "If we cross it, we will lose all our memories" - the soldiers said. Exasperated by this, the Roman general stepped down from his horse and crossed the river. Once on the other side, he called his soldiers by their names, one by one. Thus convinced that this was not the river of forgetfulness, the legionnaires followed the general.


Pentax K10D + Zeiss Planar 50/1.4

2 comments:

Somanna said...

Interesting story!

bshapiro photography said...

I came upon your blog when Googling "River of Forgetfulness"--it was a phrase I read in a book called "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" by Nick Flynn, which has just been released as a movie ("Being Flynn") with Robert DeNiro. Your photo certainly has the right feeling. Thanks for sharing it.