Socrates and Euthyphro are discussing their upcoming cases in court. Socrates explains that he is the defendant on a charge of disrespecting the gods, but he is unsure whether the indictment is serious, or some kind of joke. Euthyphro has just explained that he is sometimes the butt of jokes on account of his seriousness.
What follows is a bold translation for a beginner. It must be wrong, because I can’t find any translator who reads it this way. So there must be something I don’t know about the two participles παίζοντας καὶ γελῶντας.
Translation: But if, as I was just saying, they [the accusers] mean to make fun of me, as you say [others have done] to you, then it might be fun to spend time in the trial [with them ] playing and laughing.
I am reading this as a sort of Dirty Harry statement by Socrates, somewhat in the spirit of, “but if they want to play games with me, then let them go ahead and make my day.”
I wouldn’t say that’s wrong at all, Hugh, in fact I think that’s a good translation. I’m not sure you’ve quite captured the spirit of it, though. He’s saying that if his accusers were not in earnest but were merely to be having fun at his expense, he’d play along and take their joshing in good part. The plural is inclusive, and as I read it there’s no sense of Make my day.
There’s nothing preventing the plural from being read as inclusive of everybody there, but surrounded as it is with verbs referring to the jurors, I’d expect first for it to refer to them. But does the implicit object of ἀηδές pull in Socrates?
…they might find it good fun to spend their time playing and laughing in the court…
vs.
…we might find it good fun to spend our time playing and laughing in the court…
Of these two, the first doesn’t explicitly make the point that Socrates will get off scot-free, but that still remains an implicit enough point that this section of dialogue still works just fine in context. It becomes, however, a special jab against the Athenian jurors, leaving Socrates an ever-so-slightly more reserved character than Euthyphro, butt of jokes. The second option is more explicit, and emphasizes Socrates’ cynic-like disregard of public opinion.
So was Plato feeling his anti-democratic oats the morning he wrote the line, or was his Socrates imitating his contemporary Democritus? Without something to signal a new subject for διαγαγεῖν, I personally lean slightly to the first. The ironic detachment of Dirty Harry, but with no implied threat.