How many names does the tortoise in Arcadia go by?

• A. Two names: Plautus and Lightning.
• B. One name: Plautus
• C. Three names: Plautus, Lightning, and Hermes
• D. Four names: Plautus, Lightning, Hermes, and Atlas

Answer: (A)

Naming across time shows how a single creature can carry two identities depending on who’s telling the story. In Arcadia, the tortoise is given the name Plautus in the older, garden-era scenes—named after the classical playwright to fit the work’s love of antiquity and scholarly humor. In the modern-day segments, a different observer calls the same tortoise Lightning, a nickname that reflects the contemporary tone and the lively voice of the present-day narration. Because the same animal appears across two timelines with different narrators and purposes, it ends up with two different names. This dual naming highlights how names can shift with context, memory, and perspective, rather than staying fixed.