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Section 4

SOCRATES. But what is your case, Euthyphro? Are you defending or prosecuting?

EUTHYPHRO. Prosecuting.

SOCRATES. Whom?

EUTHYPHRO. Someone whom, again, people think I am crazy to prosecute.

SOCRATES. Why? Are you prosecuting someone who has wings to fly away?

EUTHYPHRO. He is far from flying; he happens to be very old.

SOCRATES. Who is it?

EUTHYPHRO. My father.

SOCRATES. Your own father, my good man?

EUTHYPHRO. Yes, indeed.

SOCRATES. What is the charge, and what is the lawsuit about?

EUTHYPHRO. Murder, Socrates.

SOCRATES. By Heracles! Surely, Euthyphro, the multitude is ignorant of what the right course is. For I do not think that just anyone could undertake such an action rightly, but only someone who is already very far advanced in wisdom.

EUTHYPHRO. Very far advanced indeed, Socrates, by Zeus.

SOCRATES. Is the man your father killed one of your relatives? Of course he must be. You wouldn't prosecute him for murder on behalf of a stranger.

EUTHYPHRO. It is ridiculous, Socrates, that you think it makes a difference whether the dead man is a stranger or a relative. The only thing to consider is whether the killer killed justly or not. If justly, one should let it go; if unjustly, one must prosecute him, even if the killer shares your hearth and table. The pollution is the same if you associate knowingly with such a man and do not purify yourself and him by bringing him to justice. As it happens, the victim was a day-laborer of mine. While we were farming on Naxos, he was working for us there for hire. One day he got drunk, became enraged at one of our household slaves, and slaughtered him. So my father bound him hand and foot, threw him into a ditch, and sent a man here to Athens to ask the religious adviser what should be done. During that time, my father neglected the bound man, thinking him a murderer and assuming it would not matter if he died. And that is exactly what happened. Due to hunger, cold, and his bonds, he died before the messenger returned from the adviser. Now my father and my other relatives are angry with me because I am prosecuting my father for murder on behalf of a murderer. They say my father did not even kill him, and even if he did, since the dead man was a murderer, I should not concern myself with someone like that. They claim it is impious for a son to prosecute his father for murder. They know poorly, Socrates, how the divine law stands regarding piety and impiety.