ABSTRACT
The longest lasting medical model is widely attributed to Aelius Galenus, who is now known as Galen. He was born in AD 129 and grew up in Pergamon, an ancient Greek city in what is now the western part of Turkey some miles from the Aegean Sea. Among other resources, Pergamon already contained the largest library after the one in Alexandria as well as a temple and spa dedicated to the Greek medical god Asclepius. Galen distinguished four main personality types or temperaments, each related to the predominance of an identifiable humor. The chapter describes a person's personality as their "temperament," which for Galen was expressed in the particular balance of the four humors. Each of the humors was connected to one of the four elements of the ancient world and with many other aspects of the world, including seasons of the year, and times of life.
