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Another topic is derived from the meaning of a
name. For instance, Sophocles says, “
Certainly thou art iron, like thy name.1
” This topic is also commonly employed in praising the gods.
Conon used to
call Thrasybulus “the man bold in counsel,” and Herodicus
said of Thrasymachus, “Thou art ever bold in fight,” and of
Polus, “Thou art ever Polus （colt） by name and colt
by nature,”2 and of Draco the legislator that his laws were not those of a man, but of
a dragon, so severe were they. Hecuba in Euripides3 speaks
thus of Aphro-dite: “
And rightly does the name of the goddess begin like the word
aphro-syne （folly）;
” and Chaeremon4 of Pentheus, “
Pentheus named after his unhappy future.
”
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1 Sophocles, Tyro, Frag. 597 （T.G.F.）. The reference is to Sidero （ σίδηρος, iron）, the cruel stepmother of Tyro.
2 Thompson's rendering （Introd. to his edition of Plato's Gorgias p. 5）. “Colt” refers to Polus's skittishness and frisking from one subject to another.
4 Frag. 4 （T.G.F.）. The name Pentheus is from πένθος （sorrow）.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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