Plato, Critias 114a · 114a
Atlas, the eldest, made king
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Critias — γενομένῳ τήν τε μητρῴαν οἴκησιν καὶ τὴν κύκλῳ λῆξιν, πλείστην καὶ ἀρίστην οὖσαν, ἀπένειμε, βασιλέα τε τῶν ἄλλων κατέστησε, τοὺς δὲ ἄλλους ἄρχοντας, ἑκάστῳ δὲ ἀρχὴν πολλῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ τόπον πολλῆς χώρας ἔδωκεν. ὀνόματα δὲ πᾶσιν ἔθετο, τῷ μὲν πρεσβυτάτῳ καὶ βασιλεῖ τοῦτο οὗ δὴ καὶ πᾶσα ἡ νῆσος τό τε πέλαγος ἔσχεν ἐπωνυμίαν, Ἀτλαντικὸν λεχθέν, ὅτι τοὔνομʼ ἦν τῷ πρώτῳ βασιλεύσαντι
To the first-born he assigned his mother's dwelling and the allotment around it, which was the largest and the best, and he made him king over the others, and made the others rulers. To each he gave rule over many people and a place of much land. He gave names to them all. To the eldest, the king, he gave the name from which the whole island and the sea took their name, being called Atlantic, because the name of the one who first reigned was
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The setting
Poseidon gives his firstborn son his mother's home and the best and largest share, sets him as king over his brothers, and names him Atlas, from whom the island and the sea take their name.
A note on this passage
The first-born gets tēn mētrōian oikēsin, "his mother's dwelling," the home of Cleito on the central hill, together with tēn kyklōi lēxin, the allotment lying around it. The noun lēxis comes from the verb of drawing lots, and the passage keeps returning to it, since Poseidon is dividing by share. The superlatives pleistēn and aristēn make it the largest and the best portion, and the one word basilea, "king," sets him over his brothers, who are only archontas, rulers.
The naming is set up with care. The island and the sea share one epōnymian, a name taken from a person, and the adjective Atlantikon is formed from the king's own name. The sentence is built to hold its answer back: hoti tounom' ēn tōi prōtōi basileusanti, "because the name was that of the first to reign," and the name itself falls at the start of the next section. Critias gives the reason first and the name after it.
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