Four Humours, Four Elements, Alchemy

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 144247

Jaimee:
>...and I don't know if anyone knows through  interviews etc, 
> if JKR has used the four humours for personality traits, but I  
think it may 
> have been in her head in creating some characters OR  possibly in 
arranging the 
> four houses at Hogwarts...  Since they also  correlate with the 
four elements 
> etc...this is a decent possiblity.
>  
> Here is the Wikipedia Page that I looked at:
>  _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_four_humours_ 
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_four_humours) 

Ceridwen:
Sorry, list elves, the iron is warming up!

*Blood - Spring season, element of air, organ- liver, qualities are 
warm and moist.  Blood is courageous, hopeful and amorous.  Its sense 
of emotion is hedonistic (sensual pleasures).  Myers-Briggs - SP

*Phlegm - Winter season, element of water, organ - brain and lungs, 
qualities are cold and moist.  Phlegm is calm and unemotional.  Its 
sense of emotion is propraitari (acquiring assets).  Myers-Briggs - NT

*Choler/yellow bile - Summer season, element of fire, organ - gall 
bladder, qualities are warm and dry.  Choler is easily angered, bad 
tempered.  Its sense of emotion is ethikos (moral virtue).  Myers-
Briggs - NF  aka Bilious

*Melancholy/black bile - Autumn season, element of earth, organ - 
spleen, qualities are cold and dry.  Melancholy is despondent, 
sleepless, irritable.  Its sense of emotion is dialogike (logical 
investigation).  Myers-Briggs - SJ  aka Atrabilious
http://www.answers.com/topic/four-humours

There are other correspondences.  From what the several sites, which 
are all pretty much like the link above, say, is that an excess of 
any of the humours produces illness - phlegm would produce a cold 
illness, since it's qualities are cold and moist.  The way to treat 
this illness would be to serve foods and medicines which are 
choleric - warm and dry.

The Four Humours, as well as the Four Elements, are also part of 
alchemy.  I tried, I really did, to get some sort of grip on the 
alchemy website I browsed.  I would have made a lousey alchemist.  
But, according to at least one website (belonging to John? Granger), 
the HP series of books is following along an alchemic sort of plan.  
So, there may be some connection between the humours and the elements 
in an alchemical way.

I'm not exactly sure how the title matches the chapter, or Fleur, who 
is called 'phlegm' by Ginny.  But, I'll try:
   Fleur is the only female in the household who seems to be calm and 
relatively unemotional, at least compared to the others.  While Molly 
is upset, Ginny is loathsome, and Hermione doesn't seem to want Fleur 
around, Fleur herself floats through the chapter chatting and smiling 
and bringing Harry his breakfast.  She also seems to have fewer 
problems with various emotions - Harry is still grieving for Sirius, 
Ron's overwhelmed with Fleur the Veela.
   The emotion or 'happiness' associated with phlegm is propraitari, 
of an acquiring nature.  Fleur is engaged to Bill, whether his family 
and friends like it or not.

I don't see Fleur as 'cold and moist'.  Maybe it means the 'cold 
shoulder' she's getting?  Maybe her detractors are 'all wet'?  
For 'winter', the atmosphere toward Fleur at the Burrow is 
decidedly 'chilly'.  But, I think I'm stretching here.

I wish I could understand the alchemy site a little better, to see 
how phlegm works out there.  What it would mean specifically to 
alchemy, how it reacts with other humours and the elements.

Very little to go on there.  Looking at the NT personality type, I 
don't see how it matches either, but I'm not an expert.
http://www.geocities.com/enematic5000/ntexplaination.html

Totally off-topic for the thread, but something I found while 
browsing the alchemy site, was something called the Allegory of 
Merlin.  Since Merlin is the favorite wizard to swear by for a few of 
the characters, I thought I'd take a look.  It had something to do 
with a king at the beginning of a battle.  The king dies (gruesomely, 
IIRC), then this takes place:
   ***To which the physicians consented, and they did take the dead 
king, as the others hath left him and grinding him they washed him 
well till nothing remained of the others medicines, then they did dry 
him. Then they did take of salt armoniac one part, and two parts of 
Alexandrine Nitre. This they did mix with the powder of the dead 
King. Then they did make a paste of it with linseed oil, and put it 
into a chamber, made like a perforated crucible, and under the hole 
they put another clean crucible. There they left him for one hour, 
then they covered it with fire blowing till all was melted into the 
other crucible, descending through the hole. Then the King, also 
brought from dead to life, cried out "Where are the enemies. Let them 
know that I will kill them, if they do not obey me immediately".***
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/merlin.html

I'm a believer in Dead!Dumbledore.  JKR has said that when a 
character dies, he's dead.  But the whole alchemy thing, put with the 
alchemic text portion above, could point the other way, IMO.  A 
perforated crucible, a fire, then the dead king brought to life.  
*IF* alchemy plays anything more than the part of a framework, could 
we see a Resurrected!Dumbledore in some fashion?  (repeating: I think 
he's well and properly dead)

Ceridwen, striking while the iron is hot.