and becomes a demon; which is a name given to him
signifying wisdom. And I say too, that every wise man who happens to be
a good man is more than human (daimonion) both in life and death, and is
rightly called a demon.

HERMOGENES: Then I rather think that I am of one mind with you; but what
is the meaning of the word 'hero'? (Eros with an eta, in the old writing
eros with an epsilon.)

SOCRATES: I think that there is no difficulty in explaining, for the
name is not much altered, and signifies that they were born of love.

HERMOGENES: What do you mean?

SOCRATES: Do you not know that the heroes are demigods?

HERMOGENES: What then?

SOCRATES: All of them sprang either from the love of a God for a mortal
woman, or of a mortal man for a Goddess; think of the word in the old
Attic, and you will see better that the name heros is only a slight
alteration of Eros, from whom the heroes sprang: either this is
the meaning, or, if not this, then they must have been skilful as
rhetoricians and dialecticians, and able to put the question (erotan),
for eirein is equivalent to legein. And therefore, as I was saying,
in the Attic dialect the heroes turn out to be rhetoricians and
questioners. All this is easy enough; the noble breed of heroes are a
tribe of sophists and rhetors. But can you tell me why men are called
anthropoi?--that is more difficult.

HERMOGENES: No, I cannot; and I would not try even if I could, because I
think that you are the more likely to succeed.

SOCRATES: That is to say, you trust to the inspiration of Euthyphro.

HERMOGENES: Of course.

SOCRATES: Your faith is not vain; for at this very moment a new
and ingenious thought strikes me, and, if I am not careful, before
to-morrow's dawn I shall be wiser than I ought to be. Now, attend to me;
and first, remember that we often put in and pull out letters in words,
and give names as we please and change the accents. Take, for example,
the word Dii Philos; in order to convert this from a sentence into
a noun, we omit one of the iotas and sound the middle syllable grave
instead of acute; as, on the other hand, letters are sometimes inserted
in words instead of being omitted, and the acute takes the place of the
grave.

HERMOGENES: That is true.

SOCRATES: The name anthropos, which was once a sentence, and is now a
noun, appears to be a case just of this sort, for one letter, which is
the alpha, has been omitted, and the acute on the last syllable has