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Section 6

SOCRATES. Tell me then, what do you say is the pious and what is the impious?

EUTHYPHRO. I say that the pious is exactly what I am doing now: prosecuting the wrongdoer for murder, temple robbery, or any other such crime, whether the wrongdoer happens to be your father, your mother, or anyone else. And not prosecuting them is impious. Consider, Socrates, the great proof I have that the law demands this—a proof I have already given to others to show that it is right not to tolerate the impious person, regardless of who he is. Men believe that Zeus is the best and most just of the gods, and they agree that he bound his own father, Cronos, because he unjustly devoured his children, and that Cronos in turn castrated his own father for similar reasons. Yet these same people are angry with me because I am prosecuting my father for his wrongdoing! They contradict themselves in what they say about the gods and what they say about me.

SOCRATES. Could this be the reason I am facing indictment, Euthyphro? Whenever someone tells such stories about the gods, I find them very difficult to accept. Because of this, it seems, people will say I am doing wrong. But now, if you, who know so much about these matters, also share these beliefs, it seems I must concede. For what else can I say, when I myself admit that I know nothing about them? But tell me, by the god of friendship, do you truly believe that these things happened exactly like that?

EUTHYPHRO. Yes, and even more marvelous things than these, Socrates, which the multitude does not know.

SOCRATES. And do you also believe there is truly war among the gods, and terrible hostilities and battles, and many other such things, which are told by the poets and woven into the sacred robes by good craftsmen, such as the robe carried up to the Acropolis at the Great Panathenaea? Are we to say that all these things are true, Euthyphro?

EUTHYPHRO. Not only those, Socrates, but as I said just now, I could explain many other things about the gods to you if you wish, which I am sure would astound you to hear.