Euthyphro of Prospalta (; ; fl. 400 BCE) was an ancient Athenian religious prophet ('' mantis'') best known for his role in his eponymous dialogue written by the

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

. Euthyphro's biography can be reconstructed only through the details revealed by Plato in the ''Euthyphro'' and '' Cratylus'', as no further contemporaneous sources exist. Debra Nails, ''The people of Plato: a prosopography of Plato and other Socratics''. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2002; pg. 152. Euthyphro's status as a "mantic" seer, and his particular interest in father-gods such as

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

Cronus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Cronus, Cronos, or Kronos ( or ; ) was the leader and youngest of the Titans, the children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Sky). He overthrew his father and ruled dur ...

and

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

, is supported by both texts, and Socrates accredits Euthyphro with igniting deep inspiration during the

etymological Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

exercise he embarks upon in the ''Cratylus.'' Although Socrates seems to treat this faculty with ironic disdain, he never criticizes it openly, however it is implied that the other Athenian citizens at the Ecclesia often responded to Euthyphro's claims of divination with disdain and scorn. It is entirely possible as well that Euthyphro was created by Plato as a literary device. His name in ancient Greek is a combination of εὐθύς (''euthys''), which means straight or direct, and φρονέω (''phroneô''), which means to think or to reason; hence his name means "straight thinker" or "Mr. Right-mind." The Euthyphro depicts him as an Athenian citizen of the

deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or (, plural: ''demoi'', δήμοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Classical Athens, Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, bu ...

Prospalta, who was old enough to have appeared multiple times before the Athenian assembly. Euthyphro seems to have brought charges against his own father for leaving a paid laborer to die in a ditch after the laborer had killed another worker during a fight, though it is likely that Euthyphro did not expect serious punishment to be implemented for this crime. Euthyphro had evidently farmed on

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

, probably as part of the ''cleruchy'' established by

Pericles Pericles (; ; –429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed ...

in 447 to which his father may have belonged. If he was, in fact, historical, the trial he instigated against his father depicted in the ''Euthyphro'' may have begun as early as 404, John Burnet, ''Plato's ''Euthyphro, Apology'' and ''Crito. Oxford: Clarendon, 1924 and the dramatic date of the ''Euthyphro'' may be definitively set at 399 BCE, placing his birth somewhere in the mid-5th century. The dramatic date of the ''Cratylus'' is uncertain, argued to be before 421, circa 410, or 399; John Sallis, ''Being and Logos'', University of Indiana Press, 1997; pg. 230. this makes gauging the exact Euthyphro's period of activity difficult. If the ''Cratylus'' is indeed set two decades prior, he would have been in his mid-forties in the ''Euthyphro'', meaning his father was in his seventies and hence a contemporary of Socrates. This earlier dating paradigm furthermore suggests that he may have been a long-lived figure in Athens. While little remains of Euthyphro's life, his depiction in Plato sparked interest in many generations of scholars and commentators.

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...

depicts him as being swayed away from the prosecution of his father following the ''

aporia In philosophy, an aporia () is a conundrum or state of puzzlement. In rhetoric, it is a declaration of doubt, made for rhetorical purpose and often feigned. The notion of an aporia is principally found in ancient Greek philosophy, but it also p ...

'' demonstrated in his eponymous dialogue. Inspired by this ''aporia'', the debate between Euthyphro and

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

therein influenced generations of

theologians Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

and gave rise to the question of the relationship between God and morality known as the

Euthyphro dilemma The Euthyphro dilemma is found in Plato's dialogue ''Euthyphro'', in which Socrates asks Euthyphro, "Is the pious ( τὸ ὅσιον) loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" ( 10a) Although it ...

. This arose in antiquity and was revived by Ralph Cudworth and Samuel Clarke in the 17th and 18th centuries,

Terence Irwin Terence Henry Irwin Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (; born 21 April 1947), usually cited as T. H. Irwin, is a scholar and philosopher specializing in ancient Greek philosophy and the history of ethics (i.e., the history of Western moral philo ...

, "Socrates and Euthyphro: The Argument and its Revival" (2006) remaining relevant in theological and philosophical discussions for centuries thereafter.

References

{{reflist, 2 4th-century BC Athenians 5th-century BC Athenians Prophets Greek prosecutors

See also

References