160 Aristotle and his school
( 954 a 34 ff.),^73 yet this seems to leave room for the possibility of bile being
in other places (cf.Somn. vig. 457 a 33 ). The lack of clarity as to whether the
defining feature of melancholics is cold (Somn. vig. 457 a 31 ) or heat (Part.
an. 672 b 29 ; and implicitly (probably) the passages on recklessness and
lack of self-control fromEth. Nic. 7 ) is solved here by attributing to black
bile the possibility of great changes in temperature ( 954 a 14 – 15 :
3
8
% ! :!
L>Lastly, the
question whethermelancholikoscharacterises the humanphusisor the hu-
manethos ̄ receives an answer here, which is: both; for melancholics appear
to illustrate how the human character is influenced by the physiological
constitution. The text of theProblematauses the termethopoios, ̄ ‘affecting
character’, to describe this influence.
6 the aristotelian character of the theory
in the problemata
When considering the Aristotelian character of the theory presented in this
chapter, it should first of all be said that whereas the psycho-physical and
moral features of melancholics that Aristotle mentions do not occur in the
exact same words in the text of theProblemata, most of them easily fit into
the theory. The melancholic’s sensitivity to a large number of movements
and images, repeatedly discussed in theParva naturaliaandEudemian
Ethics, and the resulting divination in sleep can readily be related to the
effects of heat in the melancholic nature as mentioned in 954 a 31 – 8. The
use of the example of the melancholic in the context of lack of self-control
and physical lust (Nicomachean Ethics) in theProblematatheory could
equally be understood as an expression of a mixture of black bile dominated
by heat ( 954 a 33 : (#
3 R R 1
L>
However, it cannot be denied that the chapter in theProblematarelates the
melancholic nature to a much larger number and variety of mental and
physical afflictions (as shown above); in addition, an important question is
whether there are elements in this process which cannot be reconciled with
Aristotle’s statements (see below).
Secondly, it should be noted that the author of the text apparently is
very well informed about Aristotle’s statements on melancholy, and even
seems to make an effort to take the Aristotelian concept into account
(^73) Cf.Mem. 453 b 23 – 4 , which mentions the presence of black bile around the ‘perceptive region’
(aisthetikos topos ̄ , i.e. the heart, which to Aristotle is also the ‘place where thinking takes place’, noeros
topos). [See also ch. 4 and ch. 7 ,p. 224 .]