Dialogues

whole race in remote ages; he saw only what was at hand and immediate⁠—or in other words, πέλας (near), in his eagerness to win Hippodamia by all means for his bride. Everyone would agree that the name of Tantalus is rightly given and in accordance with nature, if the traditions about him are true. Hermogenes And what are the traditions? Socrates Many terrible misfortunes are said to have happened to him in his life⁠—last of all, came the utter ruin of his country; and after his death he had the stone suspended (ταλαντεία) over his head in the world below⁠—all this agrees wonderfully well with his name. You might imagine that some person who wanted to call him ταλάντατος (the most weighted down by misfortune), disguised the name by altering it into Tantalus; and into this form, by some accident of tradition, it has actually been transmuted. The name of Zeus, who is his alleged father, has also an excellent meaning, although hard to be understood, because really like a sentence, which is divided into two parts, for some call him Zena (Ζῆνα), and use the one half, and others who use the other half call him Dia (Δία); the two together signify the nature of the God, and the business of a name, as we were saying, is to express the nature. For there is none who is more the author of life to us and to all, than the lord and king of all. Wherefore we are right in calling him Zena and Dia, which are one name, although divided, meaning the God through whom all creatures always have life (δἰ ὃν ζῆν ἀεὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ζῶσιν ὑπάρχει). There is an irreverence, at first sight, in calling him son of Cronos (who is a proverb for stupidity), and we might rather expect Zeus to be the child of a mighty intellect. Which is the fact; for this is the meaning of his father’s name: Κρόνος quasi Κόρος (κορέω, to sweep), not in the sense of a youth, but signifying τὸ καθαρὸν καὶ ἀκήρατον τοῦ νοῦ, the pure and garnished mind (sc. ἀπὸ τοῦ κορεῖν). He, as we are informed by tradition, was begotten of Uranus, rightly so called (ἀπὸ τοῦ ὁρᾶν τὰ ἄνω) from looking upwards; which, as philosophers tell us, is the way to have a pure mind, and the name Uranus is therefore correct. If I could remember the genealogy of Hesiod, I would have gone on and tried more conclusions of the same sort on the remoter ancestors of the Gods⁠—then I might have seen whether this wisdom, which has come to me all in an instant, I know not whence, will or will not hold good to the end. Hermogenes You seem to me, Socrates, to be quite like a prophet newly inspired, and to be uttering oracles. Socrates Yes, Hermogenes, and I believe that I caught the inspiration from the great Euthyphro of the Prospaltian deme, who gave me a long lecture which commenced at dawn: he talked and I listened, and his wisdom and enchanting ravishment has not only filled my ears but taken possession of my soul, and today I shall let his superhuman power work and finish the investigation of names⁠—that will be the way; but tomorrow, if you are so disposed, we will conjure him away, and make a purgation of him, if we can only find some priest or sophist who is skilled in purifications of this sort. Hermogenes With all my heart; for am very curious to hear the rest of the enquiry about names. Socrates Then let us proceed; and where would you have us begin, now that we have got a sort of outline of the enquiry? Are there any names which witness of themselves that they are not given arbitrarily, but have a natural fitness? The names of heroes and of men in general are apt to be deceptive because they are often called after ancestors with whose names, as we were saying, they may have no business; or they are the expression of a wish like Eutychides (the son of good fortune), or Sosias (the Saviour), or Theophilus (the beloved of God), and others. But I think that we had better leave these, for there will be more chance of finding correctness in the names of immutable essences;⁠—there ought to have been more care taken about them when they were named, and perhaps there may have been some more than human power at work occasionally in giving them names. Hermogenes I think so, Socrates. Socrates Ought we not to begin with the consideration of the Gods, and show that they are rightly named Gods? Hermogenes Yes, that will be well. Socrates My notion would be something of this sort:⁠—I suspect that the sun, moon, earth, stars, and heaven, which are still the Gods of many barbarians, were the only Gods known to the aboriginal Hellenes. Seeing that they were always moving and running, from their running nature they were called Gods or runners (θεοὺς, θέοντας); and when men became acquainted with the other Gods, they proceeded to apply the same name to them all. Do you think that likely? Hermogenes I think it very likely indeed. Socrates What shall follow the Gods? Hermogenes Must not demons and heroes and men come next? Socrates Demons! And what do you consider to be the meaning of this word? Tell me if my view is right. Hermogenes Let me hear. Socrates You know how Hesiod uses the word? Hermogenes I do not. Socrates Do you not remember that he speaks of a golden race of men who came first? Hermogenes Yes, I do. Socrates

He says of them⁠—

“But now that fate has closed over this race
They are holy demons upon the earth,
Beneficent, averters of ills, guardians of mortal men.”32

Hermogenes What is the inference? Socrates What is the inference! Why, I suppose that he means by