Socrates compares the original formation of a word to the work of an artist when discussing and how it would relate to its subject. In a painting, an artist uses colour to portray the essence of his subject. Similarly, the maker of words employs letters that have specific sounds to convey the essence of the word's subject. There is a letter for soft objects, a letter for liquid things, and so forth.



Hermogenes holds the opposing viewpoint that names are the result of custom and convention. They don't capture the essence of their subject, so individuals or communities who utilise them can replace them with something unrelated. The distinction between the two viewpoints is frequently obscured. [more clarification is required] Socrates provides educated assumptions about the origins of names and words for more than half of the debate in response to Hermogenes' request. Names of Olympian gods, personified deities, and many words that denote abstract concepts are among them. He investigates if the names "streams" given to Cronus and Rhea (o = flow or space) are just coincidental.