Melancholia
MELANCHOLIA
Though well known, the Classical taxonomy of the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) and their effects on the human psyche cannot be traced to any unambiguous source. Plato was the first to find a silver lining in the nimbus cloud of melancholy. In Plato's taxonomy of mental health, a surplus of black bile made one prone to such frenzy that divine inspiration could be achieved in music and poetry. Gellius, a contemporary, commented that melancholy had become "a disease of heroes."