To be afraid of one's own shadow. This is said of people who tremble like children when there is no danger at all. It comes either from those who catch sight of their own shadow and are suddenly frightened, or from the melancholics of whom Aristotle speaks, who on account of weak spirits in the eye see something like an image of themselves in the surrounding air, and then they think they see their own ghosts. Socrates says in the Phaedo of Plato, 'But you, afraid of your shadow, as they say,' that is, mistrusting yourself. Quintus to Cicero on seeking the consulship: 'The other indeed, in heaven's name, of what distinction is he? First, of the same aristocracy as Catiline. Of greater? No, but in his valour. For this reason, Manius, the man who feared his own shadow, you will indeed despise.' This passage, however, was corrupted in the manuscripts in more ways than one. Plutarch, decade 7 of the 'Table-talk,' 'The one who refuses and resents the name of "shadow" seems truly to be afraid of a shadow.' He is speaking of 'shadows' so called because they themselves were not invited by the host but followed an invited guest to the feast.