The Four Humors

What are the Four Humors? 

    The four humors were also known as the four temperaments. They were used as a proto psychological classification of character types. The Greek physician Hippocrates created and incorporated the four humors into his work (7). The four types of humors were: phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic, and sanguine. If a person is phlegmatic they are seen as relaxed and peaceful. Choleric people are short-tempered, fast, and irritable. The melancholic people are analytical, wise and quiet. The sanguine people were known to be enthusiastic, active, and social (1 & 7).

How are the Humors Connected to Our Bodily Fluids and Elements? 

    The four humors were created to define and determine a person's physical and mental health. It could also identify their personality. In times before this if a person was sick with illness or a disease they were seen as being filled with an evil spirit (4). The four humors/fluid substances of the body were blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm (1). This theory was also connected to and derived by the four elements. The four elements are water, earth, fire, and air. Earth was represented by black bile, fire by yellow bile, and water by phlegm. While air was associated with blood. However, it was believed that all four elements could also be represented by blood.(3) Blood was thought to be produced by the liver and is related and associated to that body part. The characteristics associated with the liver included courageousness, hopefulness, and playfulness. Yellow bile was associated with the spleen, and an imbalance was considered to cause aggressiveness and anger issues. Black bile was linked to the gallbladder, and an imbalance was thought to cause depression. Apathetic and unresponsive behaviors were thought to be caused from an imbalance of the bodily fluid phlegm. The brain and lungs were believed to be the source of all of this humor (3). The chart pictured here on the right from The Legacy of Humoral Medicine is a perfect example and source.c    

Balancing the Four Humors and Medieval Medicine

    In order to be considered physically and mentally healthy in the medieval world you must have all four humors balanced. This video does a great job at discussing medieval medicine and remedies. An ideal proportion is considered as follows: (one quarter as much phlegm as blood, one sixteenth as much choler as blood, and one sixty-fourth as much melancholy as blood.) This is difficult to sustain though since the humors are continually influenced by what people eat and drink. Every fluid possesses an elemental quality that reflects some combination of heat, moisture, coldness, or dryness. Food also possess these qualities in varying degrees. This can be tempered by cooking methods (3). The way foods are categorized depends not so much on their perceived properties, but more so of their effects on the body’s humors after being ingested. The flavors and seasonings also play a role. Sweet ingredients are associated with heat and moisture, tartness with cold and dryness, and etc. (3). They also used a technique called bloodletting. This is where leeches are placed on the skin to suck the blood out (1). Some medieval

physicians also kept gardens with plants that were assigned to a particular humor. (5) It was believed that patients could restore their bodies to health again by ingesting herbal remedies made up of plants, stems, leaves, fruits, and nuts. Practitioners had gardens specifically to represent the potency of the medicinal plants. Some of these historic gardens still exist today (5). The circular Minerva Garden in Salerno, Italy is one of them in particular. In the picture to the right it shows the four quadrants it is divided into. They represent the four humors. In order to make sure that a person was healthy they would check their urine consistently (1). They were also convinced that religion and praying would solve their health problems. The idea of hope and faith still holds true and is practiced today around the world in many different religions. 

 

Works Cited

Dammeyer, Jesper. “Four Temperament.” Four Temperament - an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, Personality and Disease, 16 May 2018, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/four-temperament#:~:text=In%20the%20text%2C%20Galen%20described,melancholic.%E2%80%9D%20Imbalances%20in%20blood%20and. (7)

Heritage, English. “What Was Medieval Medicine like? | History in a Nutshell | Animated History.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 June 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuEuaSmDOec. (1)

“Humoral Theory.” Contagion - CURIOSity Digital Collections, Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics., 26 Mar. 2020, curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/contagion/feature/humoral-theory. (2)

Karen Lyon. “The Four Humors: Eating in the Renaissance.” Folger Shakespeare Library The Four Humors Eating in the Renaissance Comments, Folger Shakespeare Library, 4 Dec. 2015, www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/the-four-humors-eating-in-the-renaissance/#:~:text=Humoral%20theory%2C%20based%20on%20the,%2C%20phlegm%2C%20and%20black%20bile. (3)

Lagay, Faith. “The Legacy of Humoral Medicine.” Journal of Ethics | American Medical Association, American Medical Association, 1 July 2002, journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/legacy-humoral-medicine/2002-07. (4)

Livesalerno. “Minerva Gardens in Salerno, Amalfi Coast.” Livesalerno, www.livesalerno.com/minerva-gardens. Accessed 3 Sept. 2023. (5)

Plato, Jeff. “The Humours of Hippocrates: Which One Are You?” Classical Wisdom Weekly, 10 July 2019, classicalwisdom.com/science/medicine/the-humours-of-hippocrates-which-one-are-you/. (6)