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Plato · c. 428/427-348/347 BC

Cratylus

Κρατύλος
Ancient Sources / Plato / Cratylus

In the Cratylus Hermogenes and Cratylus ask Socrates whether names are right by nature or only by convention. To test the claim that names express the nature of things, Socrates offers a long series of etymologies for the names of heroes, gods, and the elements, among them Orestes, Tantalus, Zeus, Cronus, Uranus, Hades, Apollo, Aphrodite and Pan. He then questions Cratylus about how names imitate things and ends by asking whether anything can be known if everything is in flux.

Read from the start
Text
Greek original with English translation, 15 passages, about 24100 words in English.
Translator
Harold North Fowler (1926)
Edition
Harold North Fowler (trans.), Plato IV: Cratylus, Parmenides, Greater Hippias, Lesser Hippias, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1926; Greek text: John Burnet, Platonis Opera, Oxford Classical Texts (as digitised by Perseus)
Cite as
Plato, Cratylus 383a (by Stephanus page and section (e, g, 404e))

Contents · 15 passages

  1. 383a–386eHermogenes and Cratylus: are names right by nature or by agreement?1424 words
  2. 387a–390eThe name as an instrument; the lawgiver and the dialectician1657 words
  3. 391a–394eHomer on names: Xanthus and Scamander, Astyanax and Hector1663 words
  4. 395a–397eNames of heroes and of Zeus, Cronus and Uranus; the first gods1183 words
  5. 398a–400eDaemons, heroes, man, soul and body1337 words
  6. 401b–404eHestia, Rhea and Cronus, Poseidon, Pluto and Hades, Demeter, Hera and Pherephatta1614 words
  7. 405a–408eApollo, the Muses, Artemis, Dionysus, Aphrodite, Athena, Hephaestus, Ares, Hermes and Pan1540 words
  8. 409a–412eSun, moon and stars, the elements, the seasons and the names of wisdom1599 words
  9. 413a–416eJustice, courage, art and the names of good and evil1693 words
  10. 417a–420eAdvantage and profit, harm, pleasure, pain and desire1746 words
  11. 421a–424eTruth, falsehood and being; the primary names and the letters1804 words
  12. 425b–428eThe limits of etymology; the sound of the letters and the first lawgivers1640 words
  13. 429a–432eCratylus: can a false name exist? Names as images1810 words
  14. 433b–436eLikeness and convention; learning things through names1741 words
  15. 437a–440eNames and the flux of Heracleitus; the Forms and the ending1676 words

More by Plato

English translation by Harold North Fowler (1926). Original text: Harold North Fowler (trans.), Plato IV: Cratylus, Parmenides, Greater Hippias, Lesser Hippias, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1926; Greek text: John Burnet, Platonis Opera, Oxford Classical Texts (as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.