Euth. True.
Soc. But, my dear Euthyphro, if that which is dear to divinity were the same with that which is holy, if holiness were beloved through its being holiness, that also which is dear to divinity would be beloved through its being dear to divinity. But if that which is dear to divinity were dear to divinity through being beloved by the gods, that which is holy would also be holy through being beloved. Now, however, you see that they are contrarily affected, as being perfectly different from each other. For the one, viz. what is dear to the gods because it is beloved, is a thing of that kind that it may be beloved ; but the other, viz. holiness, because it is a thing which may be beloved, on this account is beloved. And you appear, O Euthyphro, when you was asked what holiness is, to have been unwilling to manifest the essence of it to me, but to have mentioned a certain affection pertaining to it, which this same thing holiness suffers, viz. the being beloved by all the gods ; but you have not yet told me what it is. If therefore it is agree able to you, do not conceal this from me, but again say from the beginning what holiness is, whether it be beloved by the gods, or has any other property whatever pertaining to it. For we shall not differ about this. But tell me readily what the holy, and also what the unholy is ?
Euth. But, Socrates, I cannot tell you what I conceive. For whatever position we adopt, is always somehow or other circumvented, and is not willing to remain where we have established it.
Soc. The things which you have asserted, O Euthyphro, appear to be the offspring of our progenitor Daedalus [1]. And if I indeed had said and adopted these things, perhaps you would have derided me, as if my works also, which consist in discourse, through my alliance with him, privately escaped, and were unwilling to remain where they were placed. But now (for they are your hypotheses) the raillery of some other person is necessary. For they are unwilling to abide with you, as it also appears to you yourself.
Euth. But it appears to me, Socrates, that what is laid ought to be exposed to nearly the same ridicule. For I am not the cause of the circuitous
- ↑ Daedalus was a most ingenious statuary, and is said to have made figures which moved of themselves, and seemed to be endowed with life. Socrates, therefore, calls Daedalus his progenitor, because his father was a statuary, and he himself when young exercised his father's art.
