justly, then your duty is to let the matter alone; but if unjustly, then
even if the murderer lives under the same roof with you and eats at the
same table, proceed against him. Now the man who is dead was a poor
dependant of mine who worked for us as a field labourer on our farm in
Naxos, and one day in a fit of drunken passion he got into a quarrel with
one of our domestic servants and slew him. My father bound him hand and
foot and threw him into a ditch, and then sent to Athens to ask of a
diviner what he should do with him. Meanwhile he never attended to him and
took no care about him, for he regarded him as a murderer; and thought that
no great harm would be done even if he did die. Now this was just what
happened. For such was the effect of cold and hunger and chains upon him,
that before the messenger returned from the diviner, he was dead. And my
father and family are angry with me for taking the part of the murderer and
prosecuting my father. They say that he did not kill him, and that if he
did, the dead man was but a murderer, and I ought not to take any notice,
for that a son is impious who prosecutes a father. Which shows, Socrates,
how little they know what the gods think about piety and impiety.

SOCRATES: Good heavens, Euthyphro! and is your knowledge of religion and
of things pious and impious so very exact, that, supposing the
circumstances to be as you state them, you are not afraid lest you too may
be doing an impious thing in bringing an action against your father?

EUTHYPHRO: The best of Euthyphro, and that which distinguishes him,
Socrates, from other men, is his exact knowledge of all such matters. What
should I be good for without it?

SOCRATES: Rare friend! I think that I cannot do better than be your
disciple. Then before the trial with Meletus comes on I shall challenge
him, and say that I have always had a great interest in religious