Plato, Critias 114b · 114b
Gadeirus and the next three sons
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Critias — τότε Ἄτλας· τῷ δὲ διδύμῳ μετʼ ἐκεῖνόν τε γενομένῳ, λῆξιν δὲ ἄκρας τῆς νήσου πρὸς Ἡρακλείων στηλῶν εἰληχότι ἐπὶ τὸ τῆς Γαδειρικῆς νῦν χώρας κατʼ ἐκεῖνον τὸν τόπον ὀνομαζομένης, Ἑλληνιστὶ μὲν Εὔμηλον, τὸ δʼ ἐπιχώριον Γάδειρον, ὅπερ τʼ ἦν ἐπίκλην ταύτῃ ὄνομʼ ἂν παράσχοι. τοῖν δὲ δευτέροιν γενομένοιν τὸν μὲν Ἀμφήρη, τὸν δὲ Εὐαίμονα ἐκάλεσεν· τρίτοις δέ, Μνησέα μὲν τῷ προτέρῳ γενομένῳ,
was at that time Atlas. To his twin, born after him, who received by lot the outermost part of the island toward the Pillars of Heracles, reaching to the part of the land now called Gadeiric after that place, he gave the name Eumelus in Greek and in the local speech Gadeirus, which as a surname would give this region its name. Of the second pair of twins he called one Ampheres and the other Euaemon. To the third pair, to the one born first he gave the name Mneseus,
Word by word
The setting
The name is Atlas. His twin receives the far end of the island toward the Pillars of Heracles, and the second and third pairs of twins are named.
A note on this passage
The twin of Atlas has two names, and the Greek says which is which: Hellēnistì mèn Eumēlon, tò d' epichōrion Gadeiron, "in Greek Eumelus, but in the local speech Gadeirus." The adverb Hellēnistí means "in the Greek manner" and epichōrion means "belonging to the country." So Critias gives a Greek name and a native one for the same son. The land at that end of the island is the one nŷn, "now," called Gadeiric, so the old name is tied to a place his hearers can still point to.
The clause about the surname is hard and the Greek is short: hóper t' ên epíklēn tautēi onom' àn paráschoi. The word epíklēn means "by surname" and the optative paráschoi with àn says the name "would give" the region its name. The second and third pairs follow the same pattern with tòn mèn and tòn dè, "the one" and "the other," so each pair is read off as elder and younger.
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