HERMOGENES: I think that there is something in what you say, Socrates; but
I do not understand the meaning of the name Tethys.

SOCRATES: Well, that is almost self-explained, being only the name of a
spring, a little disguised; for that which is strained and filtered
(diattomenon, ethoumenon) may be likened to a spring, and the name Tethys
is made up of these two words.

HERMOGENES: The idea is ingenious, Socrates.

SOCRATES: To be sure. But what comes next?--of Zeus we have spoken.

HERMOGENES: Yes.

SOCRATES: Then let us next take his two brothers, Poseidon and Pluto,
whether the latter is called by that or by his other name.

HERMOGENES: By all means.

SOCRATES: Poseidon is Posidesmos, the chain of the feet; the original
inventor of the name had been stopped by the watery element in his walks,
and not allowed to go on, and therefore he called the ruler of this element
Poseidon; the epsilon was probably inserted as an ornament. Yet, perhaps,
not so; but the name may have been originally written with a double lamda
and not with a sigma, meaning that the God knew many things (Polla eidos).
And perhaps also he being the shaker of the earth, has been named from
shaking (seiein), and then pi and delta have been added. Pluto gives
wealth (Ploutos), and his name means the giver of wealth, which comes out
of the earth beneath. People in general appear to imagine that the term
Hades is connected with the invisible (aeides) and so they are led by their