[399a]
Socrates
You have faith in the inspiration of Euthyphro, it seems.Hermogenes
Evidently.Socrates
And you are right in having it; for just at this very moment I think I have had a clever thought, and if I am not careful, before the day is over I am likely to be wiser than I ought to be. So pay attention. First we must remember in regard to names that we often put in or take out letters, making the names different from the meaning we intend, and we change the accent. [399b] Take, for instance, Διὶ φίλος; to change this from a phrase to a name, we took out the second iota and pronounced the middle syllable with the grave instead of the acute accent (Diphilus). In other instances, on the contrary, we insert letters and pronounce grave accents as acute.Hermogenes
True.Socrates
Now it appears to me that the name of men (ἄνθρωπος) underwent a change of that sort. It was a phrase, but became a noun when one letter, alpha, was removed and the accent of the last syllable was dropped.Hermogenes
What do you mean? [399c] Socrates
I will tell you. The name “man” (ἄνθρωπος) indicates that the other animals do not examine, or consider, or look up at (ἀναθρεῖ) any of the things that they see, but man has no sooner seen—that is, ὄπωπε—than he looks up at and considers that which he has seen. Therefore of all the animals man alone is rightly called man (ἄνθρωπος), because he looks up at (ἀναθρεῖ) what he has seen (ὄπωπε).Hermogenes
Of course. May I ask you about the next word I should like to have explained?Socrates
Certainly. [399d] Hermogenes
It seems to me to come naturally next after those you have discussed. We speak of man's soul and body.Socrates
Yes, of course.Hermogenes
Let us try to analyze these, as we did the previous words.Socrates
You mean consider “soul” (ψυχή) and see why it is properly called by that name, and likewise “body” (σῶμα)?Hermogenes
Yes.Socrates
To speak on the spur of the moment, I think those who gave the soul its name had something of this sort in mind: they thought when it was present in the body it was the cause of its living, [399e] giving it the power to breathe and reviving it (ἀναψῦχον), and when this revivifying force fails, the body perishes and comes to an end therefore, I think, they called it ψυχή. But—please keep still a moment. I fancy I see something which will carry more conviction
You have faith in the inspiration of Euthyphro, it seems.Hermogenes
Evidently.Socrates
And you are right in having it; for just at this very moment I think I have had a clever thought, and if I am not careful, before the day is over I am likely to be wiser than I ought to be. So pay attention. First we must remember in regard to names that we often put in or take out letters, making the names different from the meaning we intend, and we change the accent. [399b] Take, for instance, Διὶ φίλος; to change this from a phrase to a name, we took out the second iota and pronounced the middle syllable with the grave instead of the acute accent (Diphilus). In other instances, on the contrary, we insert letters and pronounce grave accents as acute.Hermogenes
True.Socrates
Now it appears to me that the name of men (ἄνθρωπος) underwent a change of that sort. It was a phrase, but became a noun when one letter, alpha, was removed and the accent of the last syllable was dropped.Hermogenes
What do you mean? [399c] Socrates
I will tell you. The name “man” (ἄνθρωπος) indicates that the other animals do not examine, or consider, or look up at (ἀναθρεῖ) any of the things that they see, but man has no sooner seen—that is, ὄπωπε—than he looks up at and considers that which he has seen. Therefore of all the animals man alone is rightly called man (ἄνθρωπος), because he looks up at (ἀναθρεῖ) what he has seen (ὄπωπε).Hermogenes
Of course. May I ask you about the next word I should like to have explained?Socrates
Certainly. [399d] Hermogenes
It seems to me to come naturally next after those you have discussed. We speak of man's soul and body.Socrates
Yes, of course.Hermogenes
Let us try to analyze these, as we did the previous words.Socrates
You mean consider “soul” (ψυχή) and see why it is properly called by that name, and likewise “body” (σῶμα)?Hermogenes
Yes.Socrates
To speak on the spur of the moment, I think those who gave the soul its name had something of this sort in mind: they thought when it was present in the body it was the cause of its living, [399e] giving it the power to breathe and reviving it (ἀναψῦχον), and when this revivifying force fails, the body perishes and comes to an end therefore, I think, they called it ψυχή. But—please keep still a moment. I fancy I see something which will carry more conviction
