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Description

Socrates describes his accuser, Meletus, to Euthyphro, and emphasizes how young he is both through the direct description of his appearance and through the agricultural image of a farmer weeding out older plants. Meletus was the actual prosecutor in 399 BC, but he was put up to it by a powerful radical democrat, Anytus, who is not mentioned here (he appears in another dialogue, Meno). Despite appearances, the dialogue is not about Socrates' trial per se.