Plato's Euthyphro

About the work

The Euthyphro is an early dialogue written by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato around the 4th century BC, with his teacher Socrates as its speaker. Awaiting his own trial on a charge of impiety, Socrates meets the self-assured seer Euthyphro outside the court and presses him on a single question: what is piety? The dialogue is famous for the 'Euthyphro dilemma,' which unsettles the idea that morality can be grounded in the will of the gods. Dialogos draws on its Socratic method of question and answer (elenchus) to model the habit of doubting easy definitions and asking after the essence of a concept.

Historical background

The Euthyphro is an early dialogue Plato wrote in ancient Greek (the Attic dialect) in the early 4th century BC. It is set around 399 BC: Socrates, indicted for impiety and awaiting trial, runs into the seer Euthyphro outside the porch of the King Archon. Euthyphro, it turns out, has come to prosecute his own father for the death of a hired laborer. The two trade a short but relentless series of questions about a single topic — what is piety? — and the dialogue ends without reaching a definition, the classic shape of an 'aporetic' (dead-end) Socratic work.

Defining piety

Socrates asks Euthyphro not for examples or for 'what the gods love,' but for the single form (eidos) by which all pious acts are pious. He then turns the question around — are pious things loved by the gods because they are pious, or pious because they are loved? — to show that divine approval cannot be what makes an act holy (6d–e; the dilemma is fully drawn at 10a).

Key quotations

Piety is doing what I am doing now: prosecuting anyone guilty of murder or sacrilege, even if he happens to be your own father.
Plato's Euthyphro · 5d
Euthyphro's first answer is an example, not a definition. Naming one instance is not the same as knowing the concept — the dialogue's opening trap.
What I want is the single form that makes all pious things pious — a standard I can hold actions up against and measure them by.
Plato's Euthyphro · 6d
Socrates wants a yardstick, not a list. A good definition has to work as a measure you can actually apply.
Then tell me: is the holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is loved by them?
Plato's Euthyphro · 10a
The Euthyphro dilemma. Does authority make a thing right, or does authority follow from its being right? — the question under every appeal to 'because the rules say so.'
Your words, Euthyphro, are like the statues of my ancestor Daedalus: set them down and they walk away, refusing to stay put.
Plato's Euthyphro · 11b
The moment a definition keeps slipping free. When your thinking won't hold still, you haven't lost the thread — you've reached the spot worth pressing on.

Key concepts

piety (to hosion): The right disposition toward gods and humans. The whole dialogue chases a single definition of it: what is piety?
form / eidos: The one essence or shape that makes all pious things pious. Socrates asks not for examples but for this form.
elenchus (elenchos): Socrates' method of cross-questioning an answer until its contradictions surface, dissolving easy definitions and exposing one's ignorance.
the Euthyphro dilemma: Is the good loved because it is good, or good because it is loved? It tests whether morality can be grounded in authority — the will of the gods.
aporia: A state of being stuck with no way out. The dialogue never reaches a definition, but that awareness of not-knowing is where genuine inquiry begins.

How to apply it today

Try Euthyphro's exercise on one thing you're sure about. Take a word you use to judge people or work — 'reliable,' 'professional' — and write down not an example ('they stay late') but the standard that makes something reliable in one sentence. If you get stuck, that's not failure: like the statues of Daedalus, a definition that walks away is the point where you learn the most.

And one more habit: when you follow a rule, ask yourself whether it's right because someone in charge said so, or whether you follow it because it's right. That single question is what separates going along with things from actually judging them.

Modern translations

A neutral, ad-free guide to standard modern editions worth starting with.

Plato: Five Dialogues — Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo (Hackett Classics) G. M. A. Grube, revised by John M. Cooper・Hackett Publishing Company (Hackett Classics)
The standard classroom edition in North America, valued for its clear, accurate prose; Grube's translations were revised by John Cooper for Plato: Complete Works. Euthyphro opens the volume, where Socrates, on his way to answer a charge of impiety, questions Euthyphro about the nature of piety. A free public-domain translation (Benjamin Jowett) is linked below.
The Last Days of Socrates — Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (Penguin Classics) Christopher Rowe・Penguin Books (Penguin Classics)
A fresh, fluent modern translation (2010) with introduction and notes by the Greek scholar Christopher Rowe, grouping the four dialogues set around Socrates' trial and death. Includes Euthyphro but not Meno. An earlier Penguin version translated by Hugh Tredennick and revised by Harold Tarrant also circulates.
Defence of Socrates, Euthyphro, Crito (Oxford World's Classics) David Gallop・Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics)
A close, readable rendering of the three dialogues dramatizing the events around Socrates' trial in 399 BC, with a philosophical and historical introduction plus explanatory notes. 'Defence of Socrates' is Gallop's title for the Apology; the volume contains only these three works (no Phaedo or Meno).

How Dialogos uses this source

Dialogos paraphrases the ideas of out-of-copyright source texts into modern language; it does not reproduce any copyrighted modern translation verbatim. Citations point to the section (Stephanus number) of the dialogue where an idea appears.

Public-domain text

The text below is in the public domain. The translation is the classic English version by the Oxford scholar Benjamin Jowett (1817–1893); more than a century after the translator's death, it is firmly in the public domain.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Plato's Euthyphro about?

Set around 399 BC, it is a short dialogue in which Socrates, awaiting his own trial for impiety, questions the seer Euthyphro about what piety really is. It is best known for the 'Euthyphro dilemma' (10a), which challenges the attempt to ground morality in the will of the gods.

Who wrote it, and who is the speaker?

The author is the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and the speaker who leads the conversation is his teacher Socrates. Plato wrote it as an early dialogue, casting Socrates as its central character, in the early 4th century BC.

What exactly is the 'Euthyphro dilemma'?

It is the question Socrates poses at 10a: is the holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is loved by them? If the former, morality bends to fickle approval; if the latter, its ground must lie outside the gods' will. It is the classic ethical puzzle about whether authority can make something right.

Why is Euthyphro prosecuting his own father?

A hired laborer of Euthyphro's, drunk, killed one of the household servants. Euthyphro's father bound the killer and left him in a ditch, where he died of cold and hunger before word came back from the authorities. Euthyphro calls this murder and has come to court to charge his father — a confidence that underlies his claim to know what piety is.

Does the dialogue reach a conclusion?

No. Each proposed definition of piety collapses, and at the end Euthyphro suddenly remembers an appointment and hurries off (15e), leaving the question unanswered. It is an 'aporetic' dialogue: its aim is less to give an answer than to make us distrust easy definitions.

Can I read the Euthyphro for free?

Yes. Benjamin Jowett's English translation (Jowett, 1817–1893) is out of copyright and in the public domain. You can read the full text for free at Wikisource, Project Gutenberg, and the MIT Internet Classics Archive.

In what order should I read it?

Read it with the other dialogues on Socrates' trial. The sequence that matches the events is the Euthyphro (just before the trial), then the Apology (his courtroom defense), then the Crito (refusing a plan of escape). All three are short and make a good first encounter with Plato.

How does Dialogos cite this work?

Dialogos paraphrases the source's ideas into modern language and never copies a copyrighted modern translation. Citations point to the section of the dialogue (for example, 6d–e or 10a) where the idea appears.