ARISTOTLE ON MELANCHOLY
Problemata xxx.i
Through what i is it that all those who have become eminent in philosophy or
politics or poetry or the arts turn out to be melancholics (μελαγχολικοι)?
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Some of them even show morbid symptoms caused by black bile (melaina cholè). This was said
to be the case with the hero Heracles. For he appears to have been of this nature.
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The ancients called epileptic afflictions the ‘sacred disease’ after him.ii That his temperament
was melancholic is shown by the furyiii which he displayed towards his children and
the eruption of sores which took place before his disappearance on Mount Oeta; for this often
occurs as the result of black bile.
The Spartan Lysanderiv also suffered from similar sores before his death. There are also
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the stories of Ajaxv and
Bellerophontes,vi of whom the former
became insane, while the latter sought refuge in deserted places. As Homer writes,
“Hated by all the gods, he wandered alone over the Aleian plain, eating his own
heart out, and avoiding the pathway of mortals.”vii
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Many other heroes seem to have been similarly afflicted, and among men of recent
times Empedocles,viii Plato,ix and Socrates,x and numerous other well-known men,
and also most of the poets. Many such persons have bodily afflictions as the result of this of
kind of temperament, (mixture of bodily fluids)
while some of them
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obviously possessed a natural inclination to
affections of this kind. In a word, they are all,
as stated, naturally melancholic.
The cause of this may be understood if we first take as example the effect of
wine, which if taken in large quantities appears to produce such qualities as we
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attribute to the melancholic.
As it is with drink, it induces many different characteristics, making men for
instance irritable, benevolent, compassionate, or reckless. No such results are produced
by honey or milk or water or anything similar. One can easily see that wine has a variety of
effects by observing how it gradually changes those who drink it. If they are chilled
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and taciturn as the result of abstinence,
a small quantity makes them more talkative, while a larger quantity makes them
eloquent and bold. If they continue and they proceed to action, they become
reckless, wild even. A still larger quantity makes them insolent and afterwards
overexcited, frenzied. Even more wine makes them feeble and stupid like those who
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have been
epileptic (imbecile?) from childhood, and very similar to those who
are exceedingly melancholic.
As, therefore, an individual as he drinks wine in different quantities changes his
character, so there are men who embody each character. The temporary condition
of one man when he is drunk is the permanent character of another. One man is
loquacious, another emotional, another easily moved to tears;
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for wine has this effect also on some people, as Homer writes,
“He says that I swim in tears, like a man that is heavy with drinking.” xi
Others become compassionate, or savage or taciturn; some maintain a complete
silence, especially those melancholics who are out of their minds.
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Wine also makes men erotic; as is shown by the fact that a man under influence
of wine is induced to kiss those whom, owing to their appearance or age, no sober
person would kiss.
Wine then gives a man extraordinary characteristics, but for a short time only,
while nature gives them permanently for the period of a lifetime. Some men are
bold, others taciturn, others compassionate, and others cowardly by nature.
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It is therefore clear that nature and wine produce such characteristics by the same means. For
the whole body functions under the influence of heat. Now both the (alcoholic, ed.) juice and the
melancholic temperament (mixture of fluids) are full of air. That is why the physicians say that
flatulence and disorders of the stomach (hypochondria) are due to black bile, (melaina cholè).
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Wine also contains air, so wine and the melancholic temperament are similar in nature. The froth
which forms on wine shows that it contains air; for oil does not produce froth, although it is hot,
but wine produces it in large quantities and dark wine more than white because it contains more
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heat and substance.
That is why wine excites sexual desire, and Dionysusxii and Aphroditexiii belong
together. Melancholic persons too are generally lustful. For sexual desire is due to the
presence of air. This is shown by the fact that the virile organ quickly increases from a small to a
large size by inflation. Also boys before they are capable of emitting semen find a certain pleasure
in rubbing their sexual organs through lust when they are approaching the age of puberty. The
swelling of the organ becomes manifest because air passes through the passages through which
the semen passes later on. 954a
Also the effusion and impetus of the
semen in sexual intercourse is clearly due to propulsion by air. So those foods and liquids which
fill the region of the sexual organs with air are rightly regarded as aphrodisiac. Thus dark wine
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more than anything else
produces the condition also found in melancholic
persons. This condition is obvious in some individuals; for most melancholic persons are thin
and their veins stand out, the reason being the abundance not of blood but of air.
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The reason why all melancholic persons are not thin or dark, but only those who contain
particularly unhealthy humors, is stated elsewhere.
But to return to our first question, this bodily fluid, or humor, namely melaina
cholè, is always, by nature, present in the body. It is characterized as a mixture of
heat and cold, two aspects of nature. That is why black bile, (melaina cholè), can
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become both very hot and very cold.
For one and the same thing naturally admits both heat and cold, like water, which,
though cold, yet when it is sufficiently heated (for example, when it boils) is hotter
than the actual flame which heats it. Similarly a stone or a piece of iron when
thoroughly heated becomes hotter than charcoal, though they are naturally cold.
Now black bile is naturally cold and not only on the surface. In that condition, if
it abounds in the body, it produces apoplexy, torpor, despondency and fear.
However when it is overheated, it produces cheerfulness accompanied by song,
and ecstasy, and the breaking forth of sores, and the like. Most people undergo no
influence on their character from the small amount of black bile they receive from
their daily food, only showing perhaps now and again some minor ailment.
However those who naturally possess a melancholic temperament immediately
develop diverse characters in accordance with their various temperaments
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(temperatures).
On the one hand, those who are originally full of cold black bile (melaina cholè)
become dull and stupid, whereas those who possess a large quantity of hot black
bile become clever or erotic, ecstatic or easily moved to anger and desire, while
some become more loquacious, loose lipped or chatty.
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Many too, if this heat approaches the region of the intellect, become filled with
enthusiasm, ecstatic. This is visible in Sibyls and soothsayers and all inspired
persons, who are affected not by disease but by natural temperament. Maracus, the
Syracusan, was actually a better poet when he was out of his mind.
However those in whom excessive heat is tempered are melancholic, but
cleverer and less eccentric and in many respects superior to others either in mental
accomplishments or in the arts or in public life.
As for facing dangers, a melancholic state causes great variation in reactions.
Melancholics vary from one time to another according to the temperature of the
black bile in their bodies. The melancholic temperament itself is thus inconsistent,
and produces inconsistency in the mood and behavior of melancholics; for, like
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water, it is sometimes cold and sometimes hot.
So the announcement of something alarming can make a melancholic cowardly,
if it occurs when his temperament is somewhat cold. For the black bile has already
prepared a way for the entrance of fear, and fear has a chilling effect, as is shown
9
by the fact that those who are greatly alarmed tremble. If and when the
temperament is hot, fear reduces its temperature, making a man calm and
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insensible to danger.
So too with the despondency which occurs in everyday life. We often feel grief
or sadness without being able to ascribe any cause for it, while at other times we
feel cheerful without knowing why. Everyone has such changing moods to some
extent, for there is a bit of black bile in everyone. However those who are
thoroughly penetrated by melaina cholè acquire these moods as a permanent part
of their nature. Men differ in appearance not because they possess faces as such, but because
they have different faces, some handsome, others ugly, or plain. In the same way those with a
slightly melancholic temperament are ordinary, but those who have a great deal of
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black bile
differ from the majority of people. If they are not careful, they can become
extremely melancholic.
However if their melaina cholè is tempered, they are men of genius.
If they neglect their health, they have a tendency towards melancholic diseases, with all kinds
of differing effects in different people. These can be epileptic attack or loss consciousness,
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in others violent despondency or terrors, in others over-confidence, as happened to
Archelausxiv, King of Macedonia.
The force which gives rise to such a condition is the bodily fluid and its
temperature, the mixture of hot and cold. If it be cold beyond due measure, it
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produces groundless despondency.
That is why suicide by hanging occurs most frequently among the young, but
sometimes also among older persons. Many men put an end to their lives after
drunkenness. Some melancholic persons continue in a state of despondency after
drinking. For the heat of wine quenches their natural heat.
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Heat in the seat of thought and hope makes us cheerful.
For this reason all men are eager to drink until they become intoxicated, for
abundance of wine makes all men hopeful, just as their youth makes children
sanguine. For old age is despairing but youth is full of hope.
There are a few who are seized by despondency while they are drinking, for the
same reason others become depressed after drinking. Those who become
despondent when the heat in them dies down suddenly have the urge to kill
themselves. Hence both the young and the old are more likely to hang themselves.
For old age itself makes the heat die down.
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In the young the natural melaina cholè can lead to the same. When the heat of
the black bile is extinguished suddenly, people can kill themselves, to the general
astonishment of all, since they have given no previous sign of any such intention.
When the black bile is colder, it gives rise, as has been already remarked, to
despondency of various kinds, 955a15
but when it is hotter to cheerfulness. Hence the young are more cheerful, the old
more despondent, the former being hot and the latter cold; for old age is a process
of cooling. Cooling down can also take place suddenly due to external causes, just
as objects which have been heated in the fire are cooled by unnatural processes,
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for example when water is poured over hot coals. Hence men sometimes commit
suicide after drunkenness. For the heat of the wine is introduced from outside, and when the
internal fire of the black bile is extinguished the condition which leads to suicide is
created.
Also (by the sudden cooling down of temperament) most people tend to be despondent after
sexual intercourse. Those, however, who emit a considerable amount of liquid with the semen,
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become more cheerful, for they are relieved of an excess of liquid and air.
However most
people who indulge in sexual intercourse are often despondent, for their temperament is cooled
by the act, they lose something which is valuable, without getting rid of much liquid.
To sum the matter up:
Owing to the fact that the effect of black bile (melaina cholè) is variable,
melancholic persons also show variation.
For the black bile can become very
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hot and very cold.
That affects the character, or heat and cold have such an effect to a greater extent than
anything else in us. In that respect black bile is like wine. Mingling in a stronger or weaker
dose in the body, it gives us our own special characters. Now both wine and black bile
are full of air.
It is possible for an abnormal mixture of bodily fluids to be well tempered and in
a favorable condition, that is, warmer or cooler as the situation demands. This is
why outstanding persons are all melancholicsxv not owing to some (externally
induced) illness, but due to their natural constitution.
‘Through what’ is my translation of  - the questioning word with which many discourses of
Aristotle start. The word is sometimes translated as why, but that could also refer to the reason in the
teleological sense. Why am I writing this book? I prefer the literal translation, asking for the cause in the
empirical sense, in colloquial English ‘how come’?
Eg. Why,/through what, is it that the tongue of those who are drunk stumbles ? The discourse following the
question gives the answer. This question implies that there is something unusual here, something that
needs explaining. That outstanding persons turn out to be mentally ill, or at least unstable, came and still
comes as something of a shock.
iiIn ancient Greece, epilepsy was considered as caused by the gods. It was also named after Herakles as the
i
‘herculeian disease. Symptoms of epilepsy described by the Greek doctor, Hyppocrates were shivering,
loss of speech, trouble breathing, contraction of the brain, blood stops circulating, excretion of the
phlegm. According to Hippocrates (about 400 BC), epilepsy was not a divinely cause disease but one to be
explained in natural terms, as caused by disharmony in bodily fluids .
‘I am about to discuss the disease called 'sacred.' It is not, in my opinion, any more divine or more sacred
than other diseases, but has a natural cause, and it’s supposed divine origin is due to men's inexperience
and to their wonder at its peculiar character.’
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) argues the same for melancholy. Often epilepsy and what is today called
bipolar disorder were seen together as diseases caused by imbalance of bodily fluids, phlegm and black
bile respectively.
iii According to tragic myth the hero Hercules, who overcame so many of the tyrants and monsters
threatening the Greek people, killed his wife and children in a manic fury.
iv Lysander was the Spartan General who defeated the Athenians. Plutarch writes of him : “And since he
was now of an altogether harsh disposition, owing to the melancholy which persisted into his old
age….Plutarch, Lysander, Bernadotte Perrin, Ed. 28.
v According to myth, the valiant fighter Ajax committed suicide using his own sword.
vi The mythical hero Bellophoron, slayer of monsters including the Chimaera, fell ( into a sate of
melancholy) when trying to climb to the Olympos, seat of the Gods.
vii Iliad vi. 200-2.
viii Empedocles was a Greek philosopher (492-432 BC) who ended his life falling (or jumping?) into a
working volcanic crater
ix Plato, (427 –347 BC) the great Greek philosopher and master of Aristotle
x Socrates, (470- 399 BC), the master of Plato, who was forced by the Athenian government to kill himself
by drinking poison.
xi Odyssea. xix. 122
xii Greek god of wine
xiii Greek goddess of love, Latin name Venus
xiv Archelaus I was a king of Macedon from 413 to 399 BC. He was a capable and beneficent ruler, known
for the sweeping changes he made in state administration, the military, and commerce; and for his ruthless
cruelty
xv This phrase is usually translated as ‘as all melancholic people are extraordinary’ ( eg. Mahew p. 295)
If extraordinary is taken to mean ‘abnormal’, then it is so obvious that it becomes futile. Of course
melancholics are different from most people.
If it is taken to mean that all melancholics are outstanding in terms of achievements, it seems highly
unlikely if not absurd. Moreover this conclusion does not answer the question posed at the beginning of
the essay:
‘Through what is it that all those who have become eminent in philosophy or politics or poetry or the arts
turn out to be melancholics’ ?
My translation of the concluding phrase keeps the Greek sequence, and offers an answer to the initial
question.
s
‘outstanding persons are all melancholics.
In Greek the definitive article hoi often accompanies a noun without extra meaning, and in other cases a
noun without a definitive article can be translated with the definitive article ‘the’. The addition of a definite
article to an abstract noun is common in Greek.