Tuesday, March 29, 2011

What are the four humors and what do they do?


Search: the four bile

Why: Marcel said The Smiths are great because everyone needs a little melancholy in his life (even though I called them "pretty goddamn melodramatic," not melancholy).
That word comes from Greek melas, "black" + khole "bile."
Medieval physiology attributed depression to excess of "black bile," a secretion of the spleen and one of the body's four "humors."
(Also, the name Chloe comes from the word for the greenish-yellow color of bile, too.)

Answer: First, they are outlined the Hippocratic Corpus as a way to balance bodily fluids.

They are!
  1. Yellow bile! (gall bladder)
  2. Black bile! (spleen)
  3. Phlegm! (brain/lungs)
  4. Blood! (liver)
Each is associated with a season and a quality:
  • Yellow bile: Summer; hot & dry
  • Black bile: Autumn; cold & dry
  • Phlegm: Winter; cold & moist
  • Blood: Spring; hot & moist
They are also associated with elements and hypochondriac diseases:
  • Yellow bile: Fire; too much fire made a person choleric
  • Black bile: Earth; too much earth made him melancholic
  • Phlegm: Water; too much water, phlegmatic
  • Blood: Air; too much air, sanguine
Each had a corresponding body type and complexion:
  • Yellow bile: Red-haired, thin
  • Black bile: Sallow, thin
  • Phlegm: Corpulent
  • Blood: Red-cheeked, corpulent
and a temperament or personality:
  • Yellow bile: Ambitious, bad tempered, vengeful violent
  • Black bile: Despondent, introspective, irritable, sentimental, sleepless
  • Phlegm: Calm, cowardly, unemotional, pallid, sluggish
  • Blood: Amorous, generous, happy, hopeful, responsible
and also:
Source: About.com/ancienthistory, Wikipedia,

The More You Know: They also have suggested modern equivalents, as well as Myers-Briggs types:
  • Yellow bile: Idealist; NF (intuition-feeling)
  • Black bile: Guardian; SJ (sensing-judgment)
  • Phlegm: Rational; NT (intuition-thinking)
  • Blood: Artisan; SP (sensing-perception)
Which one are you? (I am phlegm.)