Book 2, The Euthyphro: Chapter 1, The Euthyphro Summary and Analysis

This is the first of the actual dialogs. The translated version was worked or reworked by the other English scholar most closely associated with this text, Hugh Tredennick. It opens with another introduction. The scholar admits that the exact date that this document was written has been muddled by antiquity.

Contemporary readers of classical literature often find there are confusing elements of the text. There are two charges being pressed against the philosopher in Athens. One accusation is that he is corrupting the younger men of the city. The other is that he is impious, perhaps even a blasphemer and they describe this by saying that he is trying to replace Athenian deities with foreign ones. Euthyphro has heard why; apparently Socrates is known to have some kind of a "daemon...