Final answer:
Euthyphro's definition of piety being what is dear to the gods is unsatisfactory because the gods may disagree on what is pious, and it leads to the Euthyphro Dilemma which questions if moral acts are intrinsically good or made good by divine command.
Step-by-step explanation:
The second answer provided by Euthyphro to Socrates, “what is dear to the gods is pious, what is not is impious,” is unsatisfactory for two main reasons. First, as Socrates points out, the fact that the gods often disagree among themselves about what is pleasing creates a problem because what is pious to one god could be impious to another. Hence, a universal standard for piety becomes challenging to establish. Secondly, the dilemma that Socrates presents, commonly known as the Euthyphro Dilemma, further complicates this definition. It questions whether moral acts are good merely because the gods command them (which would imply morality is arbitrary) or whether the gods command them because they are inherently good (suggesting an independent standard of goodness).
This dilemma also closely relates to the modern exploration of Divine Command Theory and the search for the basis of good, a concept for which Socrates pursued an answer throughout his life, but died without finding a definitive one. Plato, Socrates' student, believed he found an answer through his theory of forms, suggesting that the standards for goodness exist independently of whether gods command them.