Plato's Euthyphro

A Subtle Study on Piety and Pretension

Jan 26, 2009 Joshua Mark

Often underrated, Plato's Euthyphro is a comic tour-de-force examining the meaning of piety while illustrating the peril of pretending to knowledge one does not have.

Plato's Euthyphro is a dialogue between Socrates and the young 'prophet' Euthyphro outside the court in Athens just before Socrates is to go to trial. As Socrates has been charged by the Athenians with 'impiety', and as Euthypho claims to understand piety perfectly (5a) Socrates, sarcastically, asks the younger man to explain "what is piety and what is impiety?" Having at first stated that he can easily define 'piety' as well as "many other stories about divine matters"(6c) it soon becomes clear that Euthyphro has no idea what piety is and no clear idea about "that accurate knowledge" (14b) of the will of the gods he boasts of repeatedly.

The importance of understanding the meaning of this concept of 'piety' is impressed upon a reader in that Euthyphro is at court to prosecute a case against his own father for impiety (his father allowed a laborer, who had killed a slave, to die, bound in a ditch, while he awaited word from the authorities on how he should proceed against the man) while Socrates, of course, is there to defend himself against the same charge of impiety for "corrupting the youth" and "inventing new gods" (3b). The man prosecuting Socrates, Meletus, is presented as being about the same age as and having the same understanding of piety as Euthyphro does; so in questioning the young man on the meaning of piety, Socrates is symbolically questioning his own accuser and, more importantly, questioning that complacency of accepting easy answers to the most difficult problems.

Piety in Ancient Greece

The concept under discussion, translated as 'piety', was known as Eusebia in ancient Greece. The word 'piety' comes from the Latin pietas and means 'dutiful conduct' while, today, 'piety' is usually understood as "religious devotion and reverence to God" (Ameican Heritage Dictionary) but, in ancient Greece, Eusebia meant neither of these exclusively and, at the same time, meant more. Eusebia was the ideal which dictated how men and women interacted, how a master should speak to a slave, how one addressed a seller in the marketplace as well as how one conducted oneself toward the gods. When Socrates is charged with impiety (Dyssebia in Greek), however much one, today, may find unjust with the charge, in encouraging the youth of Athens to question their elders Socrates would, in fact, have been guilty under the law. In the dialogue of the Euthyphro, in fact, a reader gets a first-hand view of Socrates 'corrupting' the youth of Athens as he tries to lead the young man to the realization that what God wants is not as easily grasped as conventional wisdom would have it. The question, "Do the gods love piety because it is pious, or is it pious because they love it" (10a) is never fully answered and, indeed, remains unanswered today.

Euthyphro's Pretension

Before he met Socrates, Plato intended on pursing a career as a playwright and in the Euthyphro a careful reader will appreciate the talent of the comic dramatist. While initially boasting that he knows everything about piety, it becomes clear, after four different definitions of the concept are introduced, that Euthyphro knows nothing of piety other than the conventional definition he has been taught by others, most notably the very father he is now prosecuting for impiety. The father of the household was Lord (Kyrios) and had the responsibility of teaching his sons the importance of eusebia, among other things. That Euthyphro should prosecute his own father for impiety, without fully understanding the concept he is allegedly defending, would not succeed so well as comedy if Plato did not draw the character so carefully and so accurately.

One recognizes having known a Euthyphro at one point or another in one's life: the sort of person who speaks loudly and with confidence on matters he does not know and, often, matters no one can possibly know. That Euthyphro's pretension is so profoundly annoying throughout the dialogue is testament to Plato's skill as a writer; in this dialogue one meets a young man one already knows because he is a type who is still with us and, more importantly, is a type who is us. Plato's Euthyphro is a potent, while comic, warning against the pretension of speaking - and acting - on subjects one knows nothing about.

Sources:

Plato's Euthyphro, translated by F.J. Church, 1998

Philosophic Classics, Volume I, Ancient Philosophy, Baird & Kaufmann, 5th Edition, 2008

American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition, 2006

Knowledge of Greek and travels in Greece

The copyright of the article Plato's Euthyphro in Philosophy is owned by Joshua Mark. Permission to republish Plato's Euthyphro in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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Feb 4, 2009 1:10 PM
Guest :
Joshua,

What do you think about the eschatological finale of the dialogue? I've been doing a lot of work with the Euthyphro lately, and my strong feeling is that Plato seems to be providing some sort of objective basis for ethics over and above what can be attained with human reason alone. In other words, I think he presents a case for moral accountability and the objective value of moral goods in the last few pages of the dialogue that otherwise would not be afforded.

Do you think that Plato's recourse to divine judgment adds anything to his discussion of morality in the Euthyphro? And how do you suppose it plays into his mention of the gods and morality in books like Republic IV and the Phaedo (particularly in his discussion of suicide and its moral repercussions)?
Feb 9, 2009 7:47 PM
Joshua Mark :
I think the most important line from the Euthyphro comes at 14e, "But tell me, how are the gods benefitted by the gifts which they receive from us? What they give is plain enough. Every good thing is their gift. But how are they benefited by what we give them?" I agree with you on the importance of the last part of the dialogue and I think this line is central to an understanding of that importance. Regarding how it would apply to Republic IV and Phaedo, I believe Plato answers this question of Socrates' in both those pieces: The gods are NOT benefited by what we give them but WE benefit by living a life in accordance with what the gods (as Plato would have them, not Homer)would approve of. Namely, of course, according to Plato, a life of virtue, of personal excellence (Arete)and this arete is not subjective, but objective. In other words, there is an objective standard of `excellence' one must strive toward - embodied, of course, in the example of Socrates. Thank you for your comment. I found it quite interesting.
Feb 28, 2009 6:01 AM
Joshua Mark :
In Euthyphro Plato's definition of piety is both secular and holy. The Greek word for `piety' is Eusebia but, in the holy sense, it's Housia. It's in the sense of `housia'(what is pleasing to the gods)that Plato is working in Euthyphro but I believe he is, as always, reaching for the underlying form of `what is good and what is not good, need we ask anyone to tell us these things?'(as he asks in the dialogue of Phaedrus). The importance of piety, in either sense, for Greek society and the present is that defined the parameters of one's place in society, one's social/religious duty in how one interacted with others and with the gods. If one rightly understood `piety' one knew what was owed to others, in terms of proper behavior, and what was owed oneself. Please see my article here on Suite 101 on Memory and The Afterlife in Ancient Greece for more on this. Thank you for your comment and best of luck in your work.
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