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Does divine approval make something good, or do the gods approve it because it is already good?
On the porch of the King Archon in Athens, two men meet over troubling cases. Socrates faces a charge of impiety brought by Meletus. Euthyphro, a confident religious expert, has come to prosecute his own father for a death. In Plato’s short dialogue, their encounter turns a legal setting into a searching conversation about what it means to be holy.
Euthyphro believes he knows what piety is. Socrates asks him to explain, then tests each answer with another question. Are examples enough to define an idea? Can the gods’ approval settle what is right? As certainty meets scrutiny, the conversation draws you into questions about justice, religious authority, and the reasons behind your own moral judgments.
What you’ll discover
- A startling family case Meet a son whose decision to prosecute his father puts his religious certainty under scrutiny.
- Questions that test certainty Follow Socrates as he probes familiar claims and asks what a sound definition requires.
- The puzzle of divine approval Consider whether goodness depends on what the gods love, or stands apart from their approval.
- Piety, justice, and service Explore how duties toward the gods might fit within a wider account of justice.
- An invitation to think Find a first taste of ethical reasoning that asks you to examine rather than simply accept.
Is it for you?
This is for anyone who wants a first taste of Socratic questioning, or who wonders whether right and wrong depend on God or on something deeper. If you want a firm answer handed to you at the end, you may find it frustrating.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A son prosecutes his own father
- Examples are not a definition
- What the gods love, and why they disagree
- Is the holy loved because it is holy?
- Piety as part of justice and as service
- What the dialogue teaches, and how it has lasted
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Euthyphro
by Plato
Socrates and a religious expert examine what makes actions pious.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A son prosecutes his own father
The dialogue opens with surprise. Euthyphro asks why Socrates, who spends his days in the Lyceum, is hanging about the King Archon's porch. Socrates explains that Meletus has indicted him for impiety, and that he is accused of inventing new gods and corrupting the young. Then he asks Euthyphro about his own business there.
Euthyphro's answer is shocking to anyone who hears it. He is prosecuting his father for murder. The story is this. A hired worker on the family farm on the island of Naxos got drunk and killed one of the household slaves. Euthyphro's father tied the man up, threw him in a ditch, and sent to Athens to ask a religious interpreter what to do. By the time the answer came, the worker had died of cold and hunger.
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What is Plato's Euthyphro about?
It is a dialogue in which Socrates asks a religious expert named Euthyphro to say what piety is. Each definition Euthyphro offers fails under questioning, and the talk leads to a basic question about how the gods relate to goodness.
What is the Euthyphro dilemma?
It asks whether the holy is loved by the gods because it is holy, or is holy because the gods love it. Later thinkers use it to ask whether morality depends on God's commands or exists independently.
Who is Euthyphro in the dialogue?
He is an Athenian who claims deep knowledge of religion and the will of the gods. He is on his way to prosecute his own father for a death on the family farm, which most people think shocking.
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