The Vicissitudes of Ancient Greece, Euthyphro’s Definitions of Piety and Geographical Factors

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220504.415How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Ancient Greece; Socrates; Euthyphro; historical geography

Abstract

Euthyphro, the dialogue written by Plato, records the debate between Socrates and Euthyphro before the trial of Socrates (399 B.C.). Since the text was written by Plato, who was one of Socrates’s students, we can assume that it not only contains Plato’s subjective impressions of this encounter but also traces of a worldview held by elite Athenians. Essential conceptions of nature and geography are not always entirely conscious, but they affect our ethical values and moral assumptions. This paper shows that Socrates and Euthyphro’s conceptions of piety were directly connected to geographic variables critical to the Athenian polity. By analyzing the truth claims, vocabulary, metaphors and analogies used in Plato’s narrative, it can be seen that how geographical conditions shaping the cultural and physical environment of the Greek ecumene informed a classic dialogue on justice and holiness. This paper assesses the ways in which resource availability, environmental constraints, and the infrastructure of political power in the Attic peninsula informed conceptions of justice and holiness in a democratic system in which participation was limited to adult male citizens. The vicissitudes of environmental geography affect all political systems and are expressed, consciously and unconsciously in narratives on justice, holiness and power.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Qilin Lu
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/06/01
TI  - The Vicissitudes of Ancient Greece, Euthyphro’s Definitions of Piety and Geographical Factors
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 8th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 2299
EP  - 2303
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220504.415
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220504.415
ID  - Lu2022
ER  -