Plato attributes our forgetfulness to the
limitations of a physical body.
The myth in the tenth book of the Republic to which
Wordsworth's lines finally refer, tells how the souls about to enter
generation "descent" like shooting stars, and then must cross a
desert between the two worlds or states.
They come to a river - the river Lethe, or
forgetfulness.
This river is interpreted by the late Platonists as
ever-flowing matter, of which water is the universal
symbol.
The souls are thirsty for water's sleepy
draught,
and some drink deeply so that their oblivion of
their former state is almost complete.
Others drink less deeply, and arrive on earth "not
in entire forgetfulness".
All the Greek myths relating to knowledge and
inspiration assume that we may in certain circumstances recover our
lost knowledge of the universal mind.
There are, according to Plato, three kinds of souls
who are rememberers:
the philosophers, who have knowledge - and for
Plato philosophy was, above all metaphysical;
the lovers, who through their devotion to beauty
come to knowledge of the "beautiful itself",
and the "musical souls", who are the
artists.
It is the function and the task of these to create
in this world "copies" of the eternal originals, or archetypes "laid
up in heaven", in stone or metal or music or dance or words,
according to their skills.
These copies will awaken in those who behold them -
even if only momentarily -recollection of the eternal order of which
all are part, and unanimity to that order.