Page - 396 - in The Complete Plato

names of Cronos and Rhea to the ancestors of the Gods, agreed pretty much in the doctrine of Heracleitus? Is the giving of the names of streams to both of them purely accidental? Compare the line in which Homer, and, as I believe, Hesiod also, tells of ‘Ocean, the origin of Gods, and mother Tethys (Il.—the line is not found in the extant works of Hesiod.).’ And again, Orpheus says, that ‘The fair river of Ocean was the first to marry, and he espoused his sister Tethys, who was his mother’s daughter.’ You see that this is a remarkable coincidence, and all in the direction of Heracleitus. HERMOGENES: I think that there is something in what you say, Socrates; but I do not understand the meaning of the name Tethys. SOCRATES: Well, that is almost self-explained, being only the name of a spring, a little disguised; for that which is strained and filtered (diattomenon, ethoumenon) may be likened to a spring, and the name Tethys is made up of these two words. HERMOGENES: The idea is ingenious, Socrates. SOCRATES: To be sure. But what comes next?—of Zeus we have spoken. HERMOGENES: Yes. SOCRATES: Then let us next take his two brothers, Poseidon and Pluto, whether the latter is called by that or by his other name. HERMOGENES: By all means. SOCRATES: Poseidon is Posidesmos, the chain of the feet; the original inventor of the name had been stopped by the watery element in his walks, and not allowed to go on, and therefore he called the ruler of this element Poseidon; the epsilon was probably inserted as an ornament. Yet, perhaps, not so; but the name may have been originally written with a double lamda and not with a sigma, meaning that the God knew many things (Polla eidos). And perhaps also he being the shaker of the earth, has been named from shaking (seiein), and then pi and delta have been added. Pluto gives wealth (Ploutos), and his name means the giver of wealth, which comes out of the earth beneath. People in general appear to imagine that the term Hades is connected with the invisible (aeides) and so they are led by their fears to call the God Pluto instead. HERMOGENES: And what is the true derivation? 396