# Laches — Dialogues character guide

> Laches in Dialogues by Plato.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0012-laches

## Snapshot

A blunt, battle-tested Athenian general who tries to define courage and finds Socrates quietly dismantling every answer he gives.

## Who they are

Laches is a soldier's soldier — direct, impatient with cleverness, and proud of a life spent in the field rather than the assembly. He agrees to define courage but keeps running into the problem that his examples are not definitions, and his frustration with Socrates is genuine and revealing. His willingness to keep talking anyway, even as his confidence erodes, makes him the emotional center of the Laches: a man discovering that experience alone cannot answer the questions he thought he had settled.

## In the story

### [Laches](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/laches)

A general who initially defines courage as a sort of endurance, but is refuted by Socrates.

### [Laches](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/laches)

Expresses admiration for harmony of words and deeds, and agrees to be questioned by Socrates.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/characters/laches
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- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/characters