Euthyphro

Introduction

The Euthyphro is set shortly before Socrates' trial. At the porch of the magistrate he meets Euthyphro, who is about to prosecute his own father for murder and is sure he knows what piety is. Socrates asks him to define it, and the conversation leads to one of the most famous questions in philosophy: is something pious because the gods love it, or do the gods love it because it is pious? This short dialogue is one of the best ways into Plato's philosophy, and the first of the four works on the trial and death of Socrates.