First definition
Pious is to prosecute the wrongdoer
Socrates says that’s an example, not a definition. → Knowledge after Socrates vs Nominal Definition
Second defintion
What is dear to the gods is pious, what is not is impious
- If X is hated by the gods, X is pious. If X is hated by the gods, X is impious
- The gods disagree about what is just and unjust, beautiful and ugly good or bad. That assumption is from Homer
- Every god likes what he considers good and hates what is bad
- Some X’s are both liked by the gods and disliked by other gods
- some X’s are both pious and impious
- (5) cannot be true. Hence, (1) must be rejected One could also reject 2 or 3, so 6 is technically incorrect (but Eurthyphro cannot).
Third definition
What all gods hate is impious, and what they all gods love is pious (9c)
Socrates: (A) Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious (B) because it is loved by the gods? → With Knowledge after Socrates he inquires about the second condition.
If Euryphro means B: then we can still ask why gods love those things. If they have a reason, that is, if there is something that makes them love those things, then that and not their love would make those things pious. If they do not have a reason for loving them, then gods love things for no reason and,hence, they are irrational.
→ Socrates: “You tould me an affect or quality of it, that the pious has the quality of being loved by all the gods, but you have not yet told me what the pious is.”
Ending
No conclusive definition is reached.