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Section 14

SOCRATES. Could you tell me what the service to doctors aims to accomplish? Is it not for the accomplishment of health?

EUTHYPHRO. Yes.

SOCRATES. And the service to shipbuilders? What result does it help achieve?

EUTHYPHRO. Clearly, Socrates, it helps build ships.

SOCRATES. And service to housebuilders helps build houses?

EUTHYPHRO. Yes.

SOCRATES. Tell me then, excellent friend: the service to the gods—what result does it help accomplish? You must know, since you say you know divine matters better than any man.

EUTHYPHRO. And I speak the truth, Socrates.

SOCRATES. Then tell me, by Zeus, what is that utterly beautiful work which the gods accomplish using us as their servants?

EUTHYPHRO. They accomplish many beautiful things, Socrates.

SOCRATES. So do generals, my friend. But you could easily tell me their chief result, which is achieving victory in war. Is that not so?

EUTHYPHRO. Of course.

SOCRATES. Farmers also accomplish many beautiful things, but their chief result is producing food from the earth.

EUTHYPHRO. Exactly.

SOCRATES. Now what about the many beautiful things the gods accomplish? What is the chief result of their work?

EUTHYPHRO. I told you a moment ago, Socrates, that it is a great task to learn exactly how all these things stand. But I can tell you simply this: if a man knows how to say and do things that are gratifying to the gods in prayer and sacrifice, those are the pious things. Such actions preserve private households and the common affairs of the city. The opposites of what is gratifying are impious, and these overturn and destroy everything.

SOCRATES. You could have answered my question much more briefly, Euthyphro, if you had wanted to. But you are not eager to teach me—that much is clear. Even now, just as you were on the verge of the answer, you turned away. If you had answered, I would have fully learned what piety is from you by now. But as it is, the questioner must follow the questioned wherever he leads. What do you say the pious and piety are once again? A knowledge of how to sacrifice and pray?

EUTHYPHRO. I do.

SOCRATES. And sacrificing is offering gifts to the gods, and praying is asking for things from the gods?

EUTHYPHRO. Very much so, Socrates.

SOCRATES. Based on this statement, piety would be the knowledge of asking from and giving to the gods.

EUTHYPHRO. You have grasped my meaning perfectly, Socrates.