# The Four Humors

> The Four Humors is Hippocrates' 400 BC medical theory of blood, bile, and phlegm that evolved into an internet personality framework still used in alignment charts and personality quizzes today.

The Four Humors are an ancient Greek medical framework built on the idea that human health and personality depend on the balance of four bodily fluids: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Systematized by Hippocrates around 400 BC and later formalized into a personality typology by Galen of Pergamon, the theory dominated Western medicine for over two thousand years[2]. The associated Four Temperaments (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic) survive today as a widely recognized cultural reference, showing up in internet personality quizzes, character alignment charts, and educational meme formats.

## Origin
The basic idea that internal fluids affect a person's outward behavior traces to ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian medicine, but the fluids weren't systematically categorized until around 400 BC[2]. The Greek physician Hippocrates of Kos proposed that the body contained four distinct humors and that illness resulted from their imbalance[3]. His approach broke with prevailing medical thought: rather than attributing disease to gods or superstition, Hippocrates argued that sickness came from natural causes like environment and diet[2].

Centuries later, the physician Galen of Pergamon (129 to roughly 216 AD) expanded the system. In his dissertation *De temperamentis*, Galen directly correlated the four humors to the four classical elements that the pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles had proposed: earth, water, fire, and air[5]. He also built the formal personality typology, where excess blood made a person sanguine and sociable, yellow bile made them choleric and ambitious, black bile made them melancholic and introspective, and phlegm made them phlegmatic and serene[2].

- **Platform:** Ancient Greece (medical theory)
- **Creator:** Hippocrates of Kos (systematizer), Galen of Pergamon (temperament typology)
- **Date:** ~400 BC

## Overview
The Four Humors theory proposes that the human body runs on four essential fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile[2]. Each humor pairs with a combination of elemental qualities (hot, cold, dry, moist) and maps to one of the four classical elements[1]. When these fluids are balanced, a person is healthy. When one dominates, it affects both physical condition and personality.

The humor-to-temperament mapping breaks down like this[1]:
- **Blood** (sanguine): warm and moist, tied to air. Cheerful, sociable, ruddy complexion.
- **Yellow bile** (choleric): warm and dry, tied to fire. Ambitious, hot-tempered, jaundiced appearance.
- **Black bile** (melancholic): cold and dry, tied to earth. Introspective, sad, dark complexion.
- **Phlegm** (phlegmatic): cold and moist, tied to water. Calm, reserved, pale appearance.

The theory extended well beyond diagnosis. Practitioners believed that diet, season, geography, and cooking method could all shift a person's humoral balance[1]. The Four Humors became a total framework connecting food, weather, personality, and physical health into a single system[3].

## How It Spread
The Four Humors traveled far beyond ancient Greece. Avicenna compiled all known medical knowledge of his era into *The Canon of Medicine*, completed in 1025 AD, with the humors as a central principle[5]. Originally written in Arabic, the text was translated into seven other languages and served as a standard medical textbook in European universities into the 17th century.

In medieval and Renaissance Europe, the theory shaped daily life well past the physician's office. Cooks in the 14th and 15th centuries designed meals with humoral balance in mind[1]. Herbs were classified as choleric (warm and dry) because they are leafy and of the earth, and were used to balance phlegmatic foods like fish, pork, and veal[1]. Beef, typically from older cows, was considered cold and dry and was recommended boiled with onion sauce rather than roasted, since roasting would compound the dryness and risk making the eater melancholic[1].

The humors filtered into literature and philosophy too. Shakespeare's characters routinely referenced humor imbalances in their insults and criticisms[3]. In the 1600s, English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper published papers on humoral medicine while fighting to make medical knowledge accessible beyond Latin-reading elites. Later, the philosopher Immanuel Kant applied the four temperaments to moral philosophy, arguing that melancholic individuals were the most truly virtuous and that temperamental types were fixed, not interchangeable[5].

The theory began losing its scientific footing in the 17th century and was definitively replaced as germ theory took hold in the 1800s[2]. But the personality framework outlived the medicine. In the 20th century, psychologist Hans Eysenck used factor analysis to study personality differences and found that his two key dimensions, neuroticism and extraversion, mapped closely onto the four ancient temperaments[6].

## How to Use
In online spaces, the Four Humors typically show up as a personality sorting system. Common formats include:

- **Alignment charts:** Placing characters from a show, game, or franchise into the four temperament categories
- **Personality quizzes:** "Which humor are you?" tests that assign people to sanguine, choleric, melancholic, or phlegmatic
- **Character analysis:** Using the temperaments as shorthand to describe fictional or real people, such as "she's a textbook choleric"
- **Friend group memes:** Labeling members of a group chat or ensemble cast with their corresponding humor

The framework works well for meme formats because it offers exactly four categories, each with a clearly defined personality archetype. It's flexible enough to apply to nearly anything with four distinct types[2].

## Cultural Impact
The Four Humors left a deep mark on Western art. Albrecht Dürer's 1514 engraving *Melencolia I* is one of the most recognized visual depictions, showing a winged figure slumped in thought among geometric instruments[3]. The piece captures a key shift in how melancholy was perceived: during the Renaissance, it went from being the least desirable humor to one linked with creative genius[3]. Dürer's engraving is widely read as a commentary on his own mental state, tying artistic mastery to emotional suffering.

Between 1530 and 1562, printmaker Virgil Solis produced *The Four Temperaments*, a set of engravings personifying each humor as a seated woman[3]. The choleric figure sits among flames clutching a torch, a direct nod to the element of fire. The phlegmatic figure rests on water, accompanied by an owl and a donkey. These visual conventions carried through centuries of art and still influence how the temperaments get depicted in modern infographics and internet graphics.

Beyond the visual arts, the Four Humors' core insight, that people have distinct temperamental tendencies, fed into the development of modern personality psychology[2]. While no scientist diagnoses based on bile levels today, the temperament model's influence is visible in contemporary frameworks like the Big Five personality traits.

## Fun Facts
- The word "humor" comes from the Greek *chymos*, literally meaning "juice" or "sap"[4].
- In Virgil Solis' temperament engravings, each figure is accompanied by symbolic animals: the choleric woman is flanked by an eagle and a lion, while the phlegmatic sits with an owl and a donkey[3].
- Salty foods like olives and capers were classified as choleric because they make people thirsty, which practitioners interpreted as a "drying" effect on the body[1].
- The title *Melencolia I* may reference a hierarchy of genius proposed by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, in which imagination, the domain of artists, ranked as the lowest of three categories of creative power[3].
- Physicians could prescribe or restrict specific foods based entirely on a patient's dominant humor, making diet the primary form of medical treatment for centuries[2].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is The Four Humors?
The Four Humors is an ancient medical theory proposing that human health depends on the balance of four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Each humor is linked to a personality temperament and a set of elemental qualities[1].

### Where did The Four Humors come from?
The concept has roots in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian medicine but was formally systematized by the Greek physician Hippocrates around 400 BC[2]. Galen of Pergamon later expanded it into a full personality typology.

### What does The Four Humors mean?
It means that a person's health, mood, and personality were thought to be determined by the proportion of four fluids in their body. An excess of one humor was believed to cause illness and shape behavioral traits[1].

### How do you use The Four Humors?
Online, people reference the Four Humors through personality quizzes, alignment charts, and character analysis. The four temperaments, sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic, work as categories for sorting characters or people into personality types[3].

### Is The Four Humors still popular?
As a medical theory, humorism was abandoned in the 17th century. As a cultural reference and personality sorting system, the Four Temperaments still appear regularly in internet discussions, quizzes, and meme formats[2].

### What are the four temperaments?
The four temperaments are sanguine (cheerful, sociable), choleric (ambitious, hot-tempered), melancholic (introspective, creative), and phlegmatic (calm, reserved). Each corresponds to a dominant bodily fluid and a classical element[1].

### Who was Hippocrates?
Hippocrates of Kos (c. 460–370 BC) was a Greek physician often called the "Father of Medicine." He is credited with separating medicine from superstition and systematizing the four humors into a medical framework[3].

### How did diet fit into humoral theory?
Physicians prescribed specific foods based on a patient's dominant humor. Foods had their own humoral properties: herbs were choleric (warm and dry), fish was phlegmatic (cold and moist), and cooking methods could change a food's classification[1].

### How were the Four Humors depicted in art?
Artists like Albrecht Dürer and Virgil Solis created famous visual personifications of the temperaments. Dürer's *Melencolia I* (1514) and Solis' *The Four Temperaments* (1530–1562) are among the most well-known examples[3].

### What replaced the Four Humors in medicine?
Germ theory, which identifies microorganisms as the cause of disease, replaced humorism as the foundation of modern medicine during the 19th century[2].

## References
1. [The Humors and You! Medieval Health, Diet, and Humoral Theory – Becker Medical Library](<https://becker.wustl.edu/news/humors-and-you/>)
2. [The Four Humors – Understanding the Humoral Theory and its Relation to Temperaments – Hippocratic Corpus](<https://www.hippocraticcorpus.com/237/ancient-europe/four-humors-understand-humorism-relationship-temperament/>)
3. [The Four Humors as Depicted in Art (4 Examples) | TheCollector](<https://www.thecollector.com/the-four-humors-as-depicted-in-art/>)
4. [The Four Humors - Know Your Meme](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-four-humors>)
5. [Meme](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme>)
6. [The Four Humors - Urban Dictionary](<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The%20Four%20Humors>)
7. [Humorism](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism>)
8. [Four temperaments](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_temperaments>)
9. [Hippocrates](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates>)
10. [Empedocles](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empedocles>)
11. [Galen](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galen>)
12. [The Canon of Medicine](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canon_of_Medicine>)
13. [Nicholas Culpeper](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Culpeper>)
14. [Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime - Wikipedia](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_the_Feeling_of_the_Beautiful_and_Sublime>)
15. [Classical element - Wikipedia](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_elements>)
16. [Galeni Pergamensis De temperamentis, et De inaeqvali intemperie libri tres, Thomas Linacro Anglo interprete. Opus non medicis modo, sed et philosophis oppido q[uem] necessariu[m] nunc primum prodit in lucem cvm gratia & priuilegio : Galen : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive](<http://archive.org/details/galenipergamens01payngoog>)
17. [Honest Reviews of Best CBD oil in the UK 2026](<http://www.kheper.net/topics/typology/eysenck_chart.gif>)

---
Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-four-humors
Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library