“Derkesthai means: to have a particular look in one’s eyes. Drakon, the snake, whose name is derived from derkesthai, owes this designation to the uncanny glint in his eye. He is called ‘the seeing one’, not because he can see particularly well, not because his sight functions exceptionally well, but because his stare commands attention.”

— Bruno Snell, The Discovery of the Mind, p.2