Euthyphro

Author: Plato

This short book is the first of the books by Plato detailing the story of Socrates trial and death. Though each book tells an underlying piece of the trial and death of Socrates, most of them end up being a philosophical discussion between Socrates and someone else that relates to his trial and death.

The timeline of the story overall is as follows:

• Euthyphro

  • Socrates is on his way to stand trial, and runs into Euthyphro.
• Apology

  • Socrates stands trial and gives an “Apology” (in Greek, translates to defence). But ends up receiving a death sentence.
• Crito

  • Crito attempts to convince Socrates to escape into exile, but Socrates refuses.
• Phaedo

  • Socrates drinks the hemlock and dies surrounded by his friends.

The topic of conversation that Euthyphro orients around is what defines piety. Euthyphro is a priest and claims he knows what the definition is. But Socrates shoots down all five definitions that Euthyphro comes up with through Socrates questioning. Euthyphro ultimately gets frustrated and leaves the question unanswered as Socrates goes to trial.

The main question that gets asked in the book is:

Do the gods love piety because it is pious, or is it pious because the gods love it?

I don’t feel like going through the whole philosophical discussion, so if you want to read up on it, this article gives a good overview.