Laches

A display of men fighting in armour has drawn two anxious fathers—and their sons—into conversation with Athenian generals Nicias and Laches. But the question soon turns from how young men should train to what courage really is.

In Plato’s Athens, Lysimachus and Melesias worry that their sons may not live up to the noble names they bear. They ask whether training in arms will make the boys better men, and the veteran generals offer sharply different judgments. Socrates, praised for his conduct in battle, joins the discussion—not to hand down easy advice, but to test what each speaker thinks he knows. As the talk moves from education toward the meaning of courage, confidence gives way to harder questions: Is courage simply standing firm, or does it require a deeper understanding? What, exactly, should these fathers teach their sons?

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