The evening of life is described by Plato in the most expressive manner, yet with the fewest possible touches.

As Cicero remarks (Ep.

ad Attic.), the aged Cephalus would have been out of place in the discussion which follows, and which he could neither have understood nor taken part in without a violation of dramatic propriety (cp.

Lysimachus in the Laches).
His 'son and heir' Polemarchus has the frankness and impetuousness of youth; he is for detaining Socrates by force in the opening scene, and will not 'let him off' on the subject of women and children.
Like Cephalus, he is limited in his point of view, and represents the proverbial stage of morality which has rules of life rather than principles; and he quotes Simonides (cp.Aristoph.

Clouds) as his father had quoted Pindar.