Daedalus Symbol Analysis

Socrates invokes his ancestor Daedalus as a metaphor for Euthyphro’s suggested definitions of the nature of piety. Daedalus who was known for enabling his statues to move. Socrates implies that, like Daedalus’s statues, Euthyphro’s definitions won’t stand “still” for rational scrutiny. Socrates means that Euthyphro’s definitions are slippery, or circular in their logic, and metaphorically move around the argument, collapsing into each other without saying anything concrete or substantive. Euthyphro retorts that Socrates’s reasoning reminds him of Daedalus, but here the implication is that Socrates’ questioning has spun Euthyphro around in a circle, meaning it has confused him. Socrates picks up on this line, responding with witty irony that he has, in fact, embodied Daedalus’s moving statues, since what “moves” are not only ideas that he has created, but other people’s beliefs and ideas, which are evolved by his reasoning.