The Four Humors: Foundations of Alchemy
The doctors of the medieval era were not the same type of scientists found today. They followed the school of alchemy, a system of learning whose goal was to understand the physical and astral worlds. Alchemists believed these things were inseparable in nature. The foundations of alchemy began in with Hippocrates and Aristotle in ancient Greek times. While alchemy began in ancient Greece those ideas lived on through the medieval era and are still used by some today.
Hippocrates is credited with establishing the idea of the four humors, the theory that the body and mind are linked within: blood or sanguine, phlegm or phlegmatic, yellow bile or choleric, and black bile or melancholic. These four humors …show more content…
It was infinitely pure and alchemists thought that if they succeeded in finding this substance they could cure disease and live forever. Quintessence was the Philosopher’s stone that alchemists are most famous for. “As God brought into being the celestial virtue, the fifth essence, and through it created the four solids . . . earth, air, water, and fire ... so our sacred proportion gave shape to heaven itself…” (Plato: Timaeus) Quintessence was believed to be so pure it could turn lead into gold, which was thought to be the purest form of metal as it did not tarnish or ruin when heated unlike other common metals of the time. While these ideas are not believed today the way they were, they are still used in media.
Ideas of the four elements are commonly used in media like cartoons and books, as well as movies and even ballets. In 1951 George Blanchine choreographed his ballet The Four Temperaments; a ballet in four variations: Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholic, and Choleric. Although all of these ideas are obscure and relatively unknown they are widely used in tv shows and movies like: W.I.T.C.H., which even utilizes Quintessence by name in the story, and Thor: The Dark World, which uses the idea of Aether as a mysterious and powerful substance. Ideas the have been used for many centuries are hard for humans to
The doctors of the medieval era were not the same type of scientists found today. They followed the school of alchemy, a system of learning whose goal was to understand the physical and astral worlds. Alchemists believed these things were inseparable in nature. The foundations of alchemy began in with Hippocrates and Aristotle in ancient Greek times. While alchemy began in ancient Greece those ideas lived on through the medieval era and are still used by some today.
Hippocrates is credited with establishing the idea of the four humors, the theory that the body and mind are linked within: blood or sanguine, phlegm or phlegmatic, yellow bile or choleric, and black bile or melancholic. These four humors …show more content…
It was infinitely pure and alchemists thought that if they succeeded in finding this substance they could cure disease and live forever. Quintessence was the Philosopher’s stone that alchemists are most famous for. “As God brought into being the celestial virtue, the fifth essence, and through it created the four solids . . . earth, air, water, and fire ... so our sacred proportion gave shape to heaven itself…” (Plato: Timaeus) Quintessence was believed to be so pure it could turn lead into gold, which was thought to be the purest form of metal as it did not tarnish or ruin when heated unlike other common metals of the time. While these ideas are not believed today the way they were, they are still used in media.
Ideas of the four elements are commonly used in media like cartoons and books, as well as movies and even ballets. In 1951 George Blanchine choreographed his ballet The Four Temperaments; a ballet in four variations: Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholic, and Choleric. Although all of these ideas are obscure and relatively unknown they are widely used in tv shows and movies like: W.I.T.C.H., which even utilizes Quintessence by name in the story, and Thor: The Dark World, which uses the idea of Aether as a mysterious and powerful substance. Ideas the have been used for many centuries are hard for humans to