EUTHYPHRO 17
bcde13SOCRATES: Yet you have the advantage over me in your youth no less than your
wisdom. But, as I say, the wealth of your wisdom makes you complacent. Exert your-
self, my good friend: I am not asking you a difficult question. I mean the opposite of
what the poet [Stasinus] said, when he wrote:
“You shall not name Zeus the creator, who made all things: for where there is fear
there also is reverence.”Now I disagree with the poet. Shall I tell you why?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: I do not think it true to say that where there is fear, there also is rever-
ence. Many people who fear sickness and poverty and other such evils seem to me to
have fear, but no reverence for what they fear. Do you not think so?
EUTHYPHRO: I do.
SOCRATES: But I think that where there is reverence there also is fear. Does any
man feel reverence and a sense of shame about anything, without at the same time
dreading and fearing the reputation of wickedness?
EUTHYPHRO: No, certainly not.
SOCRATES: Then, though there is fear wherever there is reverence, it is not correct to
say that where there is fear there also is reverence. Reverence does not always accompany
fear; for fear, I take it, is wider than reverence. It is a part of fear, just as the odd is a part
of number, so that where you have the odd you must also have number, though where you
have number you do not necessarily have the odd. Now I think you follow me?
EUTHYPHRO: I do.
SOCRATES: Well, then, this is what I meant by the question which I asked you. Is
there always piety where there is justice? Or, though there is always justice where there
is piety, yet there is not always piety where there is justice, because piety is only a part
of justice? Shall we say this, or do you differ?
EUTHYPHRO: No, I agree. I think that you are right.
SOCRATES: Now observe the next point. If piety is a part of justice, we must find
out, I suppose, what part of justice it is? Now, if you had asked me just now, for
instance, what part of number is the odd, and what number is an odd number, I should
have said that whatever number is not even is an odd number. Is it not so?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: Then see if you can explain to me what part of justice is piety, that I
may tell Meletus that now that I have been adequately instructed by you as to what
actions are righteous and pious, and what are not, he must give up prosecuting me
unjustly for impiety.
EUTHYPHRO: Well, then, Socrates, I should say that righteousness and piety are
that part of justice which has to do with the careful attention which ought to be paid to
the gods; and that what has to do with the careful attention which ought to be paid to
men is the remaining part of justice.
SOCRATES: And I think that your answer is a good one, Euthyphro. But there is
one little point about which I still want to hear more. I do not yet understand what the
careful attention is to which you refer. I suppose you do not mean that the attention
which we pay to the gods is like the attention which we pay to other things. We say, for
instance, do we not, that not everyone knows how to take care of horses, but only the
trainer of horses?
EUTHYPHRO: Certainly.