SOCRATES: Why, Hermogenes, I do not as yet see myself; and do you?

HERMOGENES: No, indeed; not I.

SOCRATES: But tell me, friend, did not Homer himself also give Hector his
name?

HERMOGENES: What of that?

SOCRATES: The name appears to me to be very nearly the same as the name of
Astyanax--both are Hellenic; and a king (anax) and a holder (ektor) have
nearly the same meaning, and are both descriptive of a king; for a man is
clearly the holder of that of which he is king; he rules, and owns, and
holds it. But, perhaps, you may think that I am talking nonsense; and
indeed I believe that I myself did not know what I meant when I imagined
that I had found some indication of the opinion of Homer about the
correctness of names.

HERMOGENES: I assure you that I think otherwise, and I believe you to be
on the right track.

SOCRATES: There is reason, I think, in calling the lion's whelp a lion,
and the foal of a horse a horse; I am speaking only of the ordinary course
of nature, when an animal produces after his kind, and not of extraordinary
births;--if contrary to nature a horse have a calf, then I should not call
that a foal but a calf; nor do I call any inhuman birth a man, but only a
natural birth. And the same may be said of trees and other things. Do you
agree with me?

HERMOGENES: Yes, I agree.