Hermogenes: And where does Homer say anything about names, and what does he say?
Socrates: 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?
Hermogenes: Why, of course they call them rightly, if they call them at all. But to what are you referring?
Socrates: Do you not know what he says about the river in Troy who had a single combat with Hephaestus?
“Whom,” as he says, “the Gods call Xanthus, and men call Scamander.”
Hermogenes: I remember.
Socrates: 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?
Hermogenes: I do.
Socrates: Let me ask you, then, which did Homer think the more correct of the names given to Hector’s son—Astyanax or Scamandrius?
Hermogenes: I do not know.
Socrates: How would you answer, if you were asked whether the wise or the unwise are more likely to give correct names?
Hermogenes: I should say the wise, of course.
Socrates: And are the men or the women of a city, taken as a class, the wiser?
Hermogenes: I should say, the men.
Socrates: 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 other name of Scamandrius could only have been given to him by the women.
Hermogenes: That may be inferred.
Socrates: And must not Homer have imagined the Trojans to be wiser than their wives?
Hermogenes: To be sure.
Socrates: Then he must have thought Astyanax to be a more correct name for the boy than Scamandrius?
Hermogenes: Clearly.
Socrates: And what is the reason of this? Let us consider:—does he not himself suggest a very good reason, when he says,
“For he alone defended their city and long walls”?
This appears to be a good reason for calling the son of the saviour king of the city which his father was saving, as Homer observes.