estion.' O, my dear Hermogenes, I believe that there was a
power of philosophy and talk among the first inventors of names, both in
our own and in other languages; for even in foreign words a principle
is discernible. Hestia is the same with esia, which is an old form of
ousia, and means the first principle of things: this agrees with the
fact that to Hestia the first sacrifices are offered. There is also
another reading--osia, which implies that 'pushing' (othoun) is the
first principle of all things. And here I seem to discover a delicate
allusion to the flux of Heracleitus--that antediluvian philosopher
who cannot walk twice in the same stream; and this flux of his may
accomplish yet greater marvels. For the names Cronos and Rhea cannot
have been accidental; the giver of them must have known something about
the doctrine of Heracleitus. Moreover, there is a remarkable coincidence
in the words of Hesiod, when he speaks of Oceanus, 'the origin of Gods;'
and in the verse of Orpheus, in which he describes Oceanus espousing
his sister Tethys. Tethys is nothing more than the name of a spring--to
diattomenon kai ethoumenon. Poseidon is posidesmos, the chain of the
feet, because you cannot walk on the sea--the epsilon is inserted by
way of ornament; or perhaps the name may have been originally polleidon,
meaning, that the God knew many things (polla eidos): he may also be
the shaker, apo tou seiein,--in this case, pi and delta have been added.
Pluto is connected with ploutos, because wealth comes out of the earth;
or the word may be a euphemism for Hades, which is usually derived apo
tou aeidous, because the God is concerned with the invisible. But the
name Hades was really given him from his knowing (eidenai) all good
things. Men in general are foolishly afraid of him, and talk with horror
of the world below from which no one may return. The reason why his
subjects never wish to come back, even if they could, is that the
God enchains them by the strongest of spells, namely by the desire of
virtue, which they hope to obtain by constant association with him. He
is the perfect and accomplished Sophist and the great benefactor of the
other world; for he has much more than he wants there, and hence he is
called Pluto or the rich. He will have nothing to do with the souls of
men while in the body, because he cannot work his will with them so
long as they are confused and entangled by fleshly lusts. Demeter is the
mother and giver of