x) and a holder (ektor)
have nearly the same meaning, and are both descriptive of a king; for
a man is clearly the holder of that of which he is king; he rules,
and owns, and holds it. But, perhaps, you may think that I am talking
nonsense; and indeed I believe that I myself did not know what I meant
when I imagined that I had found some indication of the opinion of Homer
about the correctness of names.

HERMOGENES: I assure you that I think otherwise, and I believe you to be
on the right track.

SOCRATES: There is reason, I think, in calling the lion's whelp a lion,
and the foal of a horse a horse; I am speaking only of the ordinary
course of nature, when an animal produces after his kind, and not of
extraordinary births;--if contrary to nature a horse have a calf, then I
should not call that a foal but a calf; nor do I call any inhuman birth
a man, but only a natural birth. And the same may be said of trees and
other things. Do you agree with me?

HERMOGENES: Yes, I agree.

SOCRATES: Very good. But you had better watch me and see that I do not
play tricks with you. For on the same principle the son of a king is to
be called a king. And whether the syllables of the name are the same or
not the same, makes no difference, provided the meaning is retained; nor
does the addition or subtraction of a letter make any difference so
long as the essence of the thing remains in possession of the name and
appears in it.

HERMOGENES: What do you mean?

SOCRATES: A very simple matter. I may illustrate my meaning by the names
of letters, which you know are not the same as the letters themselves
with the exception of the four epsilon, upsilon, omicron, omega; the
names of the rest, whether vowels or consonants, are made up of other
letters which we add to them; but so long as we introduce the meaning,
and there can be no mistake, the name of the letter is quite correct.
Take, for example, the letter beta--the addition of eta, tau, alpha,
gives no offence, and does not prevent the whole name from having the
value which the legislator intended--so well did he know how to give the
letters names.

HERMOGENES: I believe you are right.

SOCRATES: And may not the same be said of a king? a king will often
be the son of a king, the good son or the noble son of a good or noble
sire; and similarly the offspring of every kind, in the regular course
of nature, is like the parent, and therefore has the same name. Yet the
syllables may be