Piety In Plato's Euthyphro

In Plato’s Euthyphro, Socrates questions Euthyphro, a religious expert, who he runs into outside of a courthouse in Athens. Socrates was being indicted on the charges of corrupting the youth, and Euthyphro was prosecuting his own father for murder. Socrates was bewildered as to why Euthyphro would indict his own blood of a crime. In an attempt to explain to Socrates why it was the right thing to do, Euthyphro proclaims that he is acting piously by taking his father to court. Euthyphro adds that his relatives are mad at him because “it is impious for a son to prosecute his father for murder. But their ideas of the divine attitude to piety and impiety are wrong” (4e). Because of this, Socrates enquires about what Euthyphro believes piety truly is, to which he provides his four definitions that Socrates ultimately disagrees with. The first attempt in defining piety is when Euthyphro says, “I say that the pious is to do what I am doing now, to prosecute the wrongdoer…. whether the wrongdoer is your father or your mother or anyone else” (5e). He then goes on to explaining that it is impious not to prosecute to which Socrates replies, “you did not teach me adequately when I asked you what pious was, but you told me what you are doing now, in prosecuting your father for
This time, Euthyphro says that “what is dear to the gods is pious, what is not is impious” (7a). With this response comes a slight sense of understanding from Socrates who still counteracts by saying, “…the gods are in a state of discord, that they are at odds with each other…and that they are at enmity with each other” (7b). This being said, the gods are opposed to each other and do not agree. This goes to show the contradiction that Euthyphro poses in his argument. According to his logic, it would seem as if some acts were both pious and impious, but these two things are quite the