Sophomore

Euthyphro is a very interesting character as he is essentially a manipulator, but not a malicious on. He is a Sophist, so he has mastered his language and rhetoric which can make him appear to be rather knowledgeable without bringing up any facts. His personality is very interesting as he honestly believes that persecuting his father is the right thing to do so in reality he is motivated by justice which is a virtue. He would like to do the right thing based on how he understands the gods would like him to act. He also decided to challenge possibly the wisest man in Athens to a debate (unknowling perhaps, but he argued nontheless) so he has courage and self confidence in his actions, which are also virtues in my eyes. Despite being essentially Plato's antagonist in the dialogue, Euthyphro really isn't that bad of a guy. He is only a pawn using rhetoric to try to convey and justify his feelings as facts which is not necassarily a bad thing, just misguided.

He was no angel, however, as many of his virtues were also vastly overemphasized to the point that they became vices themselves. Euthyphro was extremely arrogant to suggest that he knew the value of something as abstract as piety and was just asking to be hammered by a philosopher as wise as Socrates. It could also be argued that he was extremely arrogant to try to hold his own with Socrates in a debate, but I cannot fault him for trying. Perhaps his greatest vice was misusing his linguistic ability and turning his wise tongue into that of a manipulator; a man who had no place pressing charges on his father yet planned to use his wit and ability to send his own parent to prison or even death. This too can tie into arrogance as he seemed to get too greedy in the social by claiming he was acting in the name of piety to Socrates. While a common man would probably say "Oh yeah, piety, yeah good reason," Socrates instead calls his bluff. Another vice could be that he was unintelligent and too proud to admit it. To make such a claim as to know the definition of piety and then to commit to a view with a man such as Socrates as he did on page 45 is just foolish. If he was clear in his reasoning he should have based it upon opinion and simply stated that he "was doing what a good citizen should in his opinion." Therefore, wherever the argument went the overwhelming authority would still be the opinion of Euthyphro. Any Sophist or logical would likely be able to spot that quite simply which leads me to assume that the young man was arrogant and a fool. Euthyphro wasn't necassarily a bad man by any means, he had some traits of a good character and did not seem to show any malice but did have his share of vices, even if they were careless.