Euthyphro

Euthyphro may or may not have been a real person. In his dialogues Plato generally employed characters who really existed, but of Euthyphro we have no certain record. His name resembles the Greek for “straight or orthodox mind” (207), which fits his personality well. A conscientiously religious man, Euthyphro is self-confident in his opinions and actions. He is somewhat conceited, claiming to be different from the “common herd of men” (13) and professing extensive knowledge about religion and the gods. Euthyphro acts in public as a sort of prophet, foretelling the future in the Assembly, which causes his fellow members to regard him as crazy. Euthyphro believes that the opposition he faces is due to the fact that people hold a grudge against those who prophecy.

As the dialogue progresses, Socrates knocks many of Euthyphro’s certainties down, and it becomes clear that Euthyphro does not know as much as he thinks he does. At the end, Euthyphro abruptly exits the conversation, perhaps unable or unwilling to withstand Socrates’s questioning. In effect, Euthyphro functions in the dialogue as a comic foil for Socrates’s brilliance.

Yet Euthyphro exhibits some agreeable qualities in his own right. He is friends with and respects Socrates’s philosophical abilities; the two men enjoy a playfully bantering relationship throughout the dialogue.