# Euthydemus — Dialogues character guide

> Euthydemus in Dialogues by Plato.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0018-euthydemus

## Snapshot

A visiting sophist whose cheerful, relentless questioning turns a boy's simple answers into traps, and turns argument itself into a spectator sport.

## Who they are

Euthydemus arrives in Athens with his brother and a chorus of admirers, offering to improve young Cleinias through debate. His method is dazzling and hollow: he asks whether the wise or the ignorant learn, then refutes whichever answer he receives, while his followers laugh on cue. He matters because he forces Socrates to defend what serious teaching actually looks like, and because his verbal victories expose the difference between winning an argument and learning anything from it.

## In the story

### [Euthydemus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/euthydemus)

A sophist who engages in eristic arguments to confute Cleinias.

### [Euthydemus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/euthydemus)

Euthydemus, along with his brother Dionysodorus, employs sophistical arguments to confuse Cleinias and demonstrate their supposed wisdom.

## Links

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