Euthyphro

A short dialogue set outside the court in Athens, where Socrates is waiting to answer the charges that will lead to his trial. He meets Euthyphro, who is prosecuting his own father for the death of a labourer, and who is sure he knows what piety is. Socrates asks him to define it. Euthyphro first offers an example rather than a definition, then says piety is what the gods love. Since the gods quarrel, he amends this to what all the gods love. Socrates then asks the famous question: is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because they love it? Later attempts treat piety as the part of justice that cares for the gods, then as a kind of trade in prayer and sacrifice. Each answer circles back, Socrates compares the arguments to the moving statues of Daedalus, and Euthyphro hurries away with nothing settled.

It contains the Euthyphro dilemma, still the standard challenge to any theory that grounds morality in divine commands, and it is the clearest short example of Socratic questioning.