EUTHYPHRO
by Plato
translated by Benjamin Jowett; edited by Carl Mickelsen

Soc.: What is the charge? Well, a very serious charge.... He says he knows
how the youth are corrupted and who are their corruptors. I fancy that he must
be a wise man, and seeing that I am anything but a wise man, he has found me
out, and is going to accuse me of corrupting his young friends. And of this our
mother the state is to be the judge....He brings a wonderful accusation against
me, which at first hearing excites surprise; he says that I am a poet or maker of
gods, and that I make new gods and deny the existence of old ones; this is the
ground of his indictment. And what is your suit? and are you the pursuer or
defendant, Euthyphro?
Euth.: I am pursuer.
Soc.: Of whom?...
Euth.: My father....
Soc.: And of what is he accused?
Euth.: Murder, Socrates....
Soc.: I suppose that the man whom your father murdered was one of your
relatives; if he had been a stranger you would never have thought of
prosecuting him.
Euth.: I am amused, Socrates, at your making a distinction between one who is
a relation and one who is not a relation; for surely the pollution is the same in
either case.... Now the man who is dead was a poor dependant of mine who
worked for us as a field laborer at Naxos, and one day in a fit of drunken
passion he got into a quarrel with one of our domestic servants and slew him.
My father bound him hand and foot and threw him into a ditch, and then sent
to Athens to ask of a diviner what he should do with him. Meantime he had no
care or thought of him.... For such was the effect of cold and hunger and
chains upon him, that before the messenger returned from the diviner, he was
dead. And my father and family are angry with me for taking the part of the
murderer and prosecuting my father. They say...that a son is impious who
prosecutes a father. That shows, Socrates, how little they know of the opinions
of the gods about piety and impiety.
Soc.: Good heavens, Euthyphro! and have you such a precise knowledge of
piety and impiety, and of divine things in general, that, supposing the
circumstances to be as you state, you are not afraid that you too may be doing
an impious thing in bringing an action against your father?
Euth.: The best of Euthyphro, and that which distinguishes him, Socrates, from
other men, is his exact knowledge of all these matters....
Soc.: Rare friend! I think that I can not do better than be your disciple....And
therefore, I adjure you to tell me the nature of piety and impiety... Is not piety
in every action always the same? and impiety, again, is not that always the
opposite of piety, and also the same with itself, having, as impiety, one notion
which includes whatever is impious?
Euth.: To be sure, Socrates.
Soc.: And what is piety, and what is impiety?...Remember that I did not ask
you to give me two or three examples of piety, but to explain the general idea
which makes all pious things to be pious....[-] a standard to which I may look...
Euth.: Piety, then, is that which is dear to the gods, and impiety is that which is
not dear to them.
Soc.: ...The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious
or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved
of the gods...Is not piety, according to your definition, loved by all the gods?
Euth.: Yes.
Soc.: Because it is pious or holy, or for some other reason?
Euth.: No, that is the reason....
Soc.: ...Thus you appear to me, Euthyphro, when I ask you what is the essence
of holiness, to offer an attribute only, and not the essence-the attribute of being
loved by all the gods....

[Several other definitions of piety are offered. Each one, however, is shown
by Socrates to
be inadequate.]

Soc.: Then once more the assertion is repeated that piety is dear to the
gods?...The argument, as you will perceive, comes round to the same point. I
think that you must remember our saying that the holy or pious was not the
same as that which is loved of the gods. Do you remember that?
Euth.: I do.
Soc.: And do you not see that what is loved of the gods is holy, and that this is
the same as what is dear to them?
Euth.: True.
Soc.: Then either we were wrong in that admission; or, if we were right then,
we are wrong now.
Euth.: I suppose that is the case.
Soc.: Then we must begin again and ask, What is piety? That is an inquiry
which I shall never be weary of pursuing as far as in me lies; and I entreat you
not to scorn me, but to apply your mind to the utmost, and tell me the truth.
For, if any man knows, you are he; and therefore I shall detain you until you
tell. For if you had not certainly known the nature of piety and impiety, I am
confident that you would never on behalf of a serf, have charged your aged
father with murder.