[396]
Socrates.
And his father also, who is said to be Zeus, appears to have a very excellent name, but it is not easy to understand; 396a for the name of Zeus is exactly like a sentence; we divide it into two parts, and some of us use one part, others the other; for some call him Zena ( Ζῆνα), and others Dia ( Δία); but the two in combination express the nature of the god, which is just what we said a name should be able to do. For certainly no one is so much the author of life ( ζῆν) for us and all others as the ruler and king of all. 396b Thus this god is correctly named, through whom ( δι’ ὅν) all living beings have the gift of life ( ζῆν). But, as I say, the name is divided, though it is one name, into the two parts, Dia and Zena . And it might seem, at first hearing, highly irreverent to call him the son of Cronus and reasonable to say that Zeus is the offspring of some great intellect; and so he is, for κόρος (for Κρόνος) signifies not child, but the purity ( καθαρόν) and unblemished nature of his mind. And Cronus, according to tradition, is the son of Uranus ; but the upward gaze is rightly called by the name urania ( οὐρανία), 396c looking at the things above ( ὁρῶ τὰ ἄνω), and the astronomers say, Hermogenes, that from this looking people acquire a pure mind, and Uranus is correctly named. If I remembered the genealogy of Hesiod and the still earlier ancestors of the gods he mentions, I would have gone on examining the correctness of their names until I had made a complete trial whether this wisdom which has suddenly come to me, I know not whence, 396d will fail or not.Hermogenes.
Indeed, Socrates, you do seem to me to be uttering oracles, exactly like an inspired prophet.Socrates.
Yes, Hermogenes, and I am convinced that the inspiration came to me from Euthyphro the Prospaltian. For I was with him and listening to him a long time early this morning. So he must have been inspired, and he not only filled my ears but took possession of my soul with his superhuman wisdom. So I think this is our duty: 396e we ought today to make use of this wisdom and finish the investigation of names, but tomorrow, if the rest of you agree, we will conjure it away and purify ourselves, when we have found some one, whether priest or sophist, 397a who is skilled in that kind of purifying.Cratylus. Plato. Harold North Fowler (Translator), ed. Walter Rangeley Maitland Lamb. Cambridge, MA. 1926.
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