Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 5 of 5) (IA Vol5worksofplato00plat).pdf/16

8 O Hercules ! The multitude, Euthyphro, will be ignorant how this can ever be right. For I do not think it is the province of any casual person to make such an accusation with rectitude, but of one who has made a very great proficiency in wisdom.

Very great indeed, by Jupiter, Socrates.

Is it any one of your relations who has been killed by your father ? Though it certainly must be so ; for you would not prosecute your father for the murder of a stranger.

It is ridiculous, Socrates, if you think it makes any difference whether he who is slain is a stranger or a relation, and are not persuaded that this alone ought to be attended to, whether he who committed the murder did it justly or not ; and, if justly, that he should be dismissed ; but, if unjustly, that he should be prosecuted, even though he should be your domestic, and partake of your table. For you become equally defiled with him, if you knowingly associate with such a one, and do not expiate both yourself and him, by bringing him to justice. But to apprize you of the fact : The deceased was one of our farmers, who rented a piece of land of us when we dwelt at Naxus. This man, having one day drank too much wine, was so transported with rage against one of our slaves, that he killed him. My father, therefore, ordered him to be cast into a pit, with his hands and feet bound, and immediately sent hither, to consult one of the interpreters of sacred concerns what he should do with him ; and in the meantime neglected this prisoner, and left him without sustenance as an assassin, whose life was of no consequence; so that he died. For hunger, cold, and the weight of chains killed him, before the person my father had sent returned. Hence my father and the rest of my relations are indignant with me, because I, for the sake of a homicide, accuse my father of murder, which, as they say, he has not committed ; and if he had, since he who is dead was a homicide, they think I ought not to be concerned for the fate of such a man. For they say it is impious for a son to prosecute his father for murder ; so little do they know the manner in which a divine nature is affected about piety and impiety.

But, by Jupiter, Euthyphro, do you think you possess such an accurate knowledge about divine affairs, and how things holy and impious are