La bile noire dans l'antiquité grecque : médecine et littérature

Abstract

By comparing the chapters of physician's treatises dealing with melancholia (Aeretaeus, Rufus of Ephesus, Aetius of Amida, Alexander of Tralles, more particularly Galen) and phrenitis (Hippocrates Diseases I 30, perhaps II 72) with the second and third acts of Menander's Aspis some striking coincidences may be pointed out. As a foreword or footnote to this study, issues concerning black bile such as its nature and its cause are considered -medical theorizing (humoral theory) or popular medical concepts (descriptions of melancholic characters existed before black bile was discovery, and maybe the Attic word μελαγχολάω is previous to μελαγχολία). Conclusions follow concerning an approach to ancient literatures and the history of civilisation.