Hippocratic Theory of the Four Temperaments (Four Humors)

The Greeks

This passage describes a historical theory of health and temperament. Its proposed fluid-based explanations are not a modern account of personality.

Hippocrates, who lived four centuries before Christ, is considered the father of medicine. Unlike many other physicians of that time, he wasn’t superstitious. He believed that disease originated in nature and didn’t come from the gods. For example, Hippocrates believed that epilepsy was caused by a blockage in the brain. The point of this example is the appeal to a natural cause, rather than a divine one.

Humoral pathology, or the theory of the four humors or four bodily fluids, has to do with the four temperaments. According to Hippocrates, our temperament is the fundamental way we react. It’s our behavior or our natural frame of mind. Our temperament controls our behavior.

Hippocrates believed that your health is good when the four humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—are in balance. Within this account, vomiting, coughing, or sweating was interpreted as the body expelling one or more of these substances.

The word chloe comes from Greek and means “yellow bile.” Therefore, a choleric person is controlled by yellow bile or the liver. Fiery and temperamental, choleric people sometimes frighten those around them with their powerful ways. “Choleric” can be translated as “hot-blooded.”

The Latin word sanguis means “blood.” A sanguine person is controlled by the blood, by the heart. Creative and happy-go-lucky, he spreads positive vibes around him. Full of blood and therefore optimistic and cheerful, he has an airy manner. A synonym for a sanguine person is an optimist.

A phlegmatic person gets his influences from the brain. “Phlegm” means nothing more than mucus. Mucus is viscous, which symbolizes a phlegmatic person’s temperament. A phlegmatic person is sluggish and slow in movement.

Finally, a melancholic person has an excess of black bile—the Greek melaina chloe simply means “black bile,” found in the spleen—and is therefore often perceived as melancholic and gloomy. A common synonym for a melancholic person is a pessimist.