In the north of the Iberian Peninsula the waters of a river flow that watered the nightmares of the Roman troops. And no, not because of its furious flow, nor because of its whirlpools, nor because of its length, nor because it is home to wild beasts or the habitual passage of fearsome warriors. What’s up? If the river known today as the Limia River was capable of stirring the dreams of the legionaries sent by Rome, it was because of its legend.
When they looked into its waters, the soldiers believed they were observing nothing more nor less than the dark depths of Lethe, one of the rivers of the underworld of Hades.
In a place in the north… The story of Limia is a story worthy of an epic start, on par with Don Quixote or the comics of that irreducible Gallic village that Uderzo and Goscinny told us about. In itself it is not a particularly striking river: it originates in the province of Ourense, on Mount Talariño, at a height of 985 meters, and extends 108 km until it empties into the Atlantic. Before that it runs through the south of Galicia and the north of Portugal, where it crosses the towns of Ponte da Barca, Ponte de Limia and Viana do Castelo. If it has gone down in history and remained linked to the Roman chronicle, it is however because of its symbolism, rather than because of its data.
A river worthy of the underworld. It may be surprising in the 21st century, but in Roman times it was believed that the Limia was a unique river worthy of the underworld. And not just anyone. As the Ministry of Agriculture itself recalls, a surprising legend was woven around its waters: it was believed that it was neither more nor less than the Lethe, or Lethe, one of the five rivers that flow through Hades.
There it shared the land of the dead with other equally sinister channels, such as the Phlegethon, a channel of fire; or the rivers Acheron and Cocytus, known for their waters of affliction and lamentation. Among all of them, Lethe stood out for a fearsome peculiarity. It was considered to be the river of oblivion. Whoever drank from it suffered from total forgetfulness, losing their memories no matter how happy they were.
Lethe passes through here. Whether the Roman legionaries believed more or less in the stories of their mythology and the magical power of the waters of the Limia, what can be intuited is that the legend was reasonably widespread at the time.
This is reflected in the thesaurus itself of the Cultural Heritage of Spain, which remembers that the Limia was known as Belión or Lethes, precisely because of “the confusion with the river of Oblivion mentioned in Hades.” This is actually what the Greek geographer Strabo names him. “It was believed that it made those who crossed it lose their memories, which made Roman conflicts in this environment difficult for years, since the military refused to cross it,” the file dedicated to it by the Ministry of Agriculture abounds.
Legend with expiration date. The legend of the Limia is not surprising only because of its background and popularity. Equally curious is that it can be associated with a very specific date, one that served to scare away the fears of the Roman soldiers. According to tradition, in 138 BC, General Decimus Junius Brutus, embarking on a campaign of conquest through the north of the peninsula, found that his troops refused to cross the Limia for fear of losing their memory.
To show them that their fears were unfounded, the officer decided to set an example and leave a “similar” image – with all the quotes in the world, of course – to the one that Fraga would offer centuries later in Palomares: he went into the water to prove with his flesh that it was harmless. So, banner in hand, the good general crossed the Limia until he reached the other bank and then dedicated himself to calling his soldiers by name. One by one. First, to make your orders clear. Second, and no less important, to show incontestably that the waters of that northern stream had not erased his memory.
A feat that is still remembered. Ironies of history, that feat with which Decimus Junius Brutus wanted to show that he preserved his good memory has managed to ensure that today, more than 2,000 years later, we are the ones who continue to remember him. About him and everything that surrounded the legend of Limia. For decades, the “Festa do Esquecemento” (Feast of Forgetting, in Galician) has been celebrated every summer in Xinzo de Limia, a historical celebration with concerts, parades, a market… and a recreation of the river crossing, with a fight on the banks of the Limia.
Things about water… or wine. Beyond the festival, the truth is that the legend of Galician Lethe continues to arouse interest even today, in 2023, and articles continue to be frequently written that talk about the feat of June Brutus or the origin of the legend. The Debate recently published a report in which it includes the theories of Strabo or Virgil to explain why the Limia was associated with the Lethe, such as the supposed forgetfulness suffered by the Turdulian people when crossing its waters.
Not all explanations were mythological, of course. The Roman poet even suggests that the explanation could well be a different one, more prosaic in nature: the abundance of wine in the region and its – yes – undeniable effect on memory.
Images | Álvaro Pérez Vilariño, Commons
In WorldOfSoftware | In 1061 two Galicians signed a legal agreement. More and more historians believe that it was actually a gay wedding
In WorldOfSoftware | In the 19th century, an American businessman visited A Coruña to Buy sheep. Now the US has its own A Coruña
