estia), is
rational enough. And there is reason in the Athenians calling that estia
which participates in ousia. For in ancient times we too seem to have
said esia for ousia, and this you may note to have been the idea of
those who appointed that sacrifices should be first offered to estia,
which was natural enough if they meant that estia was the essence of
things. Those again who read osia seem to have inclined to the opinion
of Heracleitus, that all things flow and nothing stands; with them the
pushing principle (othoun) is the cause and ruling power of all things,
and is therefore rightly called osia. Enough of this, which is all that
we who know nothing can affirm. Next in order after Hestia we ought to
consider Rhea and Cronos, although the name of Cronos has been already
discussed. But I dare say that I am talking great nonsense.

HERMOGENES: Why, Socrates?

SOCRATES: My good friend, I have discovered a hive of wisdom.

HERMOGENES: Of what nature?

SOCRATES: Well, rather ridiculous, and yet plausible.

HERMOGENES: How plausible?

SOCRATES: I fancy to myself Heracleitus repeating wise traditions of
antiquity as old as the days of Cronos and Rhea, and of which Homer also
spoke.

HERMOGENES: How do you mean?

SOCRATES: Heracleitus is supposed to say that all things are in motion
and nothing at rest; he compares them to the stream of a river, and says
that you cannot go into the same water twice.

HERMOGENES: That is true.

SOCRATES: Well, then, how can we avoid inferring that he who gave the
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