I will explain, so far as I can: let us take that man to be courageous who, as you describe him yourself, stays at his post and fights the enemy.
Lach.I, for one, agree to that.
Soc.Yes, and I do too. But what of this other kind of man, who fights the enemy while fleeing, and not staying?
Lach.How fleeing?
Soc.Well, as the Scythians are said to fight, as much fleeing as pursuing; and as you know Homer says in praise of Aeneas’ horses, that they knew how to pursue and to flee in fright full swiftly this way and that way;
Hom. Il. 8.107-108 and he glorifies Aeneas himself for this very knowledge of fright, calling him prompter of fright.
Hom. Il. 8.107-108 Footnote 1Socrates pretends to take the hero’s epithet prompter of fright
(in the enemy) as meaning that he prompted fright in himself and his side, and so know all about the feeling.
And very properly too, Socrates; for he was speaking of chariots; and so are you speaking of the mode of the Scythian horsemen. That is the way of cavalry fighting but with men-at-arms it is as I state it. Footnote 2i.e., they stand fast at their posts in the ranks (above, 191 A).
Soc.Except, perhaps, Laches, in the case of the Spartans. For they say that at Plataea, when the Spartans came up to the men with wicker shields, they were not willing to stand and fight against these, but fled; when, however, the Persian ranks weree broken, the Spartans kept turning round and fighting like cavalry, and so won that great battle. Footnote 3In the final struggle at Plataea ( B.C.) the Spartans at first hesitated before the barrier of wicker shields opposed to them by the Persians; but by a supreme effort they broke through and defeated the Persians by turning on them in man-to-man combat. Cf. Herod. ix. 61-2.
Lach.What you say is true.
Soc.And so this is what I meant just now by sayng that I was to blame for your wrong answer, by putting my question wrongly. For I wanted to have your view not only of brave men-at-arms, but also of courage in cavalry and in the entire warrior class; and of the courageous not only in war but in the perils of the sea, and all who in disease and poverty, or again in public affairs, are courageous; and further, all who are not merely courageous against pain or fear, but doughty fighters against desires and pleasures, whether standing their ground or turning back upon the foe—for I take it, Laches, there are courageous people in all these kinds.
Lach.Very much so, Socrates.
Soc.Then all these are courageous, only some have acquired courage in pleasures, some in pains, some in desires and some in fears, while others, I conceive, have acquired cowardice in these same things.
Lach.To be sure.
Soc.What either of them Footnote 4i.e., courage and cowardice is—that is what I wanted to know. So try again, and tell me first what is this thing, courage, which is the same in all of these cases; or do you still not comprehend my meaning?
Lach.Not very well.