Hermeneutics is the art of interpreting texts. Its name is derived from the god Hermes. In Cratylus, Socrates describes the connection between Hermes and interpretation:

Truth is not an issue closely associated with Hermes' character. He is more concerned with the meaning attached to a message. A text, a text segment, a phrase or a simple lexical item, means. When we ask what it means, we expect to be given a paraphrase of the text, an interpretation of it. If I ask ten people, I will probably be told ten different paraphrases. If I want to know what a Chinese sentence means, I have to ask for a translation. Ten different translators will give me ten different translations. Translations are in this sense like interpretations. There will never be the one and only, the perfect translation. Translations and interpretations have to be negotiated, and it does not matter if a consensus is reached or not. There is no mental mechanism that generates the one and only translation in a computational process with a predefined outcome. Translations and interpretations are the contingent results of collaborative efforts of discourse communities, an English Literature class or a community of bilingual speakers.