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Euthyphro is one of Plato’s early dialogues, dated to after 399 BC. It features Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates and Euthyphro, a man known for being a religious expert. They attempt to pinpoint a definition for piety.

The dialogue is set near the king-archon’s court, where the two men encounter each other. They are both there for preliminary hearings before possible trials.

Euthyphro has come to lay murder charges against his father, as his father had allowed one of his workers to die without proper care and attention. The worker had killed a slave belonging to the family estate on the island of Naxos and, while Euthyphro’s father waited to hear from the authorities how to proceed, the man died bound and gagged in a ditch. Socrates expresses his astonishment at the confidence of a man able to take his own father to court on such a serious charge. In what may be perceived as a tongue-in-cheek fashion, Socrates states that Euthyphro obviously has a clear understanding of what is pious (τὸ ὅσιον) and impious (τὸ ἀνόσιον). Since Socrates himself is facing a charge of impiety, by worshipping gods not approved by the state, and is unclear on what holiness is, he hopes to learn from Euthyphro.

Euthyphro claims that what lies behind the charge brought against Socrates by Meletus and the other accusers is Socrates’ claim that he is subjected to a daimon or divine sign which warns him of various courses of action. Euthyphro is right; such a claim would be regarded with suspicion by many Athenians. So too would Socrates’ views on some of the stories about the Greek gods, which the two men briefly discuss before plunging into the argument. Socrates expresses reservations about those accounts which show up the gods’ cruelty. He mentions the castration of the early sky god, Uranus, by his son Cronos, saying he finds such stories very difficult to accept.

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