Happy Mythology Monday! We’ve noted before how astrology, metallurgy (and by extension, alchemy), and classical mythology were often closely connected during the early modern period. These woodcuts, from Johannes ab Indagine’s Introductiones apolesmaticae in physiognomiam, astrologiam naturalem, complexiones hominum, naturas planetarum,are another example of this. From the top, we have personifications of the Moon, the Sun, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury, and each one is accompanied by their corresponding alchemical symbol. If you look at the chariot wheels, you’ll notice that they contain various Zodiac signs. Which one are you?
We love the frontispiece to Johann Cardilucius’s Artzneyische Wasser und Signatur-Kunst because we have a love of any frontispiece that includes references to classical mythology. Here we see the Greco-Roman gods as the personifications of various metals - Luna is Silver, Venus is Copper, Jupiter is Tin, Mercury is Mercury (surprise!), Saturn is Lead (note how he’s eating his own baby, a reference the myth of the Titans), Mars is Iron, and the Sun is Gold.
But what exactly are those triangles at the bottom of the page? Let’s take a closer look.
Here we have the Sanguine triangle, surrounded by the Zodiac symbols for Libra, Gemini, and Aquarius.
Then the choleric triangle, surrounded by Leo, Aries, and Sagittarius.
Up next is the phlegmatic triangle, with Pisces, Scorpio, and Cancer.
And then there’s the melancholic triangle, with Capricorn, Taurus, and Virgo.
Sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholic are the four temperaments, which were determined by everyone’s personal balance of the four bodily humors: blood, choler, phlegm, and black bile. Astrology and medicine were closely connected during the medieval and early modern periods, and physicians believed that the temperaments could be influenced by and had certain affinities with the astrological signs. These four diagrams show which signs corresponded to which of the four temperaments. Which one are you?
