This, then, is the impasse in which the ' Socrates' of the
Apology finds himself. The four Dialogues which follow
in the list which we are making use of exhibit 'Socrates'
as endeavouring, with little success, to open up the impasse.

In the Euthyphro he tries to make Piety (τὸ ὄσιον) object
of knowledge, to get a concept which shall enable him to
see the many different actions indiscriminately called
'pious' in such a light, from such a point of view, that
they shall take their proper places in the Good Life--all
of them, or some of them, for perhaps there are actions
commonly called 'pious' which have no place in that Life.
The problem, in other words, is to find the proper conno-
ration of 'pious'; and it is to be noted that in this early
Dialogue the word ι + ̓δέα occurs ( Euthyphro 6 D), and also
the word παράδειγμα (6 E), which Professor Jackson and
others regard as belonging to the technique of the 'later
theory of Ideas'--∑ω. μέμνησαι οǵ0 + ̑ν ὅτι οὐ του + ̑τό σοι διεκελευό-
μην, ἕν τι ὅ δύο με διδάζαι τω + ̑ν πολλω + ̑ν ὁσίων [ Euthyphro has
just said that τὸ ὅσιον is that which he is now doing, viz.
indicting his own father for homicide], ἀλλ + ̕ ἐκει + ̑νο αὐτὸ τὸ
εἐ + ̑δος ᾡ + ̑ πάνπα πὰ ὅσια ὅσιά ἐστιν; ἔΦησθα γάρ που (supra, 5 D)
μιᾳ + ̑ ἰδέᾳ τά τε ἀνόσια ὰ0νόσια εἰ + ̑ναι καὶ τὰ ὅσια ὅσια· ἣ οὐ μνη-
μονεύεις; Eυθ. ἔγωγε. ∑ω. τούν με αὐτὴν δ ναξον
τὴν ι + ̓δέαν τίς ποτέ ἐστιν, ἵνα ει + ̓ς ἐκείνην ἀποβλέπων καὶ χρώμενος
αὐτῃ + ̑ παραδείγματι, ὅ με + ̀ν ἂν τοιου + ̑τον ᾐ + ̑ ὡ + ̑ν ἂν ἢ σὺ ἢ ἄλλος
πράττῃ Φω + ̑ ὅσιον εἰ + ̑ναι, ὃ δ + ̕ ἂν μὴ τοιου + ̑τον, μὴ Φω + ̑ ¹

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