(2a-3e) Setting the scene, and character development. We meet Socrates, Euthyphro, the absent Meletus (Socrates’ prosecutor) and – stretching a point - the citizens of Athens. Socrates explains what his case is about.

EUTHYPHRO: What’s new, Socrates? Something out of the ordinary, since it has dragged you from the Lyceum here to the king-archon’s court. Surely it can’t be that you, like me, are bringing suit against someone before the king-archon?

SOCRATES: The Athenian term for what brings me here is not ‘suit’ but ‘indictment’, Euthyphro.

EUTHYPHRO'S name means 'straight one'. [Same root as our 'orthodox'.] He's a priest and may have been a real person, not just a character invented by Plato.

LYCEUM: a gymnasium.

KING ARCHON: There were nine 'archons' in Athens. The term derives from the verb meaning 'to rule'. They were magistrates, with various duties. They were 'elected' (chosen by lot from a set of candidates from 'good families') for terms of a year. The archon known as KING [basileus] wasn't really king. He was just the official in charge of hearing cases involving charges of murder and religious crime, e.g. impiety, oath-breaking, temple robbing, desecration. MORE...

E: What? Someone must have indicted you, then. You aren’t going to tell me you have indicted anyone.

S: No indeed.

E: But someone has indicted you?

S: That’s just it.

E: Who is it?

S: I don’t know the man myself, Euthyphro. He is apparently young and has yet to make a name for himself. He’s called Meletus, I gather. He belongs to the Pitthean deme, if you happen to know anyone from there by that name – long hair, thin little beard, rather pointy nose.

E: Doesn’t ring a bell, Socrates. What’s the charge?

MELETUS: There's a complex political backstory to Socrates' indictment. MORE...

DEME: Athens (pop. 50,000 approx.) was divided into about a hundred demes. So: a village or neighborhood or district, roughly.

S: What charge, you ask? No mean charge, I should say, for it is no small thing for one so young to attain such insight. He says he knows how, and by whom, the young are corrupted. More likely than not the man is wise; so when he sees my dull ignorance corrupting his whole generation, he is provoked to denounce me to the city like a child running to its mother. I think he is the only one of our public men to make a proper start in politics. One should first of all look to the proper upbringing of the young – just as a good farmer tends young sprouts first, looking after the rest later. In just this way Meletus will start off by uprooting weeds – such as myself – that damage tender shoots, so he says; later he will obviously tend to older growth, thereby making himself a source of bounty and fruitful blessings for the city; a likely fate for anyone who sets about things in such a way.

The metaphor of the CITY-AS-PARENT is rather evocative, in light of all the issues about piety and filial piety that emerge. In another dialogue, the "Crito", which narrates Socrates death, some of Socrates' followers offer to sneak him out of prison, but he refuses to break the law that way. He speaks about his duty to the Laws as being like a child's duty to its parents.

What with gods and cities laws and parents, we've got a lot of parents. Makes life complicated.

E: I only wish it were true, Socrates. I’m afraid the opposite may be the case. By trying to hurt you, it seems to me he makes a very crude start, cutting at the very heart of the city. But tell me, what does he say you do to corrupt the young.

S: It’s an outlandish business I’m mixed up in, to hear him tell the tale. He says I fabricate gods. He indicts me, so he says, on behalf of the old gods, whom I don’t believe in while I’m making the new ones.

E: I know just how it is, Socrates. This is due to the divine sign you say comes to you. This man has written out his indictment against you as against one who innovates in divine matters. He comes to court to slander you, knowing such matters can easily be made to appear in a bad light before the crowd. That’s how it is with me, too. Whenever I speak up concerning divine matters in the assembly, and foretell the future, they laugh me down as if I were crazy; yet all I have foretold has come to pass. They envy those of us with such gifts. But you musn’t pay attention to all that; you just have to take the bull by the horns.

DIVINE SIGN: A curious fact about Socrates. In a few dialogues - and from a few other ancient sources - we hear that, periodically, a 'daimonion' spoke to him. MORE...


EUTHYPHRO'S FAILURE TO WIN RESPECT IN THE ASSEMBLY: His sort of straightforward belief in stories about the gods is evidently a bit old-fashioned, by the cosmopolitan standards of modern, up-to-the-minute 5th century BC Athens. MORE...

S: My dear Euthyphro, maybe being laughed at isn’t such a big deal. The Athenians don’t mind clever-types, so long as no one tries to teach his peculiar brand of wisdom. But if someone starts bringing others round to his way of thinking, then the Athenians get angry – either because they are jealous, as you say, or for some other reason.

E: I certainly don’t have any desire to put their feelings towards me to the test.

S: Perhaps they take you for a stingy sort of fellow, not unduly eager to spread your wisdom around. But my fondness for people makes them think I am ready to spill all the beans to everyone – not just for free but maybe with a little extra thrown in, out of gratitude for the loan of a spare ear. So if it were all just a big plot to laugh at me, as you say they laugh at you, there would be nothing unpleasant about the prospect of a day in court, spent laughing and having fun. But if they are serious about it – well, in that case the outcome is less clear, unless you prophets know better.

E: Perhaps it will all come to nothing, Socrates. You will conduct your case properly, as I trust I shall mine.

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