cratylus   

changing my opinion all in a moment, and I think that I should be more
readily persuaded, if you would show me what this is which you term
the natural fitness of names.
Soc. My good Hermogenes, I have none to show. Was I not telling you
just now (but you have forgotten), that I knew nothing, and proposing
to share the enquiry with you? But now that you and I have talked over
the matter, a step has been gained; for we have discovered that names
have by nature a truth, and that not every man knows how to give a
thing a name.
Her. Very good.
Soc. And what is the nature of this truth or correctness of names?
That, if you care to know, is the next question.
Her. Certainly, I care to know.
Soc. Then reflect.
Her. How shall I reflect?
Soc. The true way is to have the assistance of those who know, and you
must pay them well both in money and in thanks; these are the
Sophists, of whom your brother, Callias, has- rather dearly- bought
the reputation of wisdom. But you have not yet come into your
inheritance, and therefore you had better go to him, and beg and
entreat him to tell you what he has learnt from Protagoras about the
fitness of names.
Her. But how inconsistent should I be, if, whilst repudiating
Protagoras and his Truth, I were to attach any value to what he and
his book affirm!
Soc. Then if you despise him, you must learn of Homer and the poets.
Her. And where does Homer say anything about names, and what does he
say?
Soc. He often speaks of them; notably and nobly in the places where he
distinguishes the different names which Gods and men give to the same
things. Does he not in these passages make a remarkable statement
about the correctness of names? For the Gods must clearly be supposed
to call things by their right and natural names; do you not think so?
Her. Why, of course they call them rightly, if they call them at all.
But to what are you referring?
Soc. Do you not know what he says about the river in Troy who had a
single combat with Hephaestus?
Whom the Gods call Xanthus, and men call Scamander.
Her. I remember.
Soc. Well, and about this river- to know that he ought to be called
Xanthus and not Scamander- is not that a solemn lesson? Or about the
bird which, as he says,
The Gods call Chalcis, and men Cymindis: to be taught how much more
correct the name Chalcis is than the name Cymindis- do you deem that a
light matter? Or about Batieia and Myrina? And there are many other
observations of the same kind in Homer and other poets. Now, I think
that this is beyond the understanding of you and me; but the names of
Scamandrius and Astyanax, which he affirms to have been the names of
Hector's son, are more within the range of human faculties, as I am
disposed to think; and what the poet means by correctness may be more
readily apprehended in that instance: you will remember I dare say the
lines to which I refer?
Her. I do.
Soc. Let me ask you, then, which did Homer think the more correct of
the names given to Hector's son- Astyanax or Scamandrius?
Her. I do not know.
Soc. How would you answer, if you were asked whether the wise or the
unwise are more likely to give correct names?
Her. I should say the wise, of course.
Soc. And are the men or the women of a city, taken as a class, the
wiser?
Her. I should say, the men.
Soc. And Homer, as you know, says that the Trojan men called him
Astyanax (king of the city); but if the men called him Astyanax, the