The shadow image is intentionally humiliating: a shadow follows without understanding, loyalty without choice, and agreement without risk. Plutarch implies that constant concurrence is not proof of closeness; it may be proof of emptiness.
From there, the line naturally points toward the ancient concern with flatterers, a theme Plutarch treats directly in his essay “How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend” (in the Moralia). A flatterer survives by pleasing, whereas a friend endures by caring—sometimes uncomfortably. [...]
