ABSTRACT
Humankind has constantly sought to simplify its world. The early Greeks reduced the world to four elements; air, fire, water and earth. Hippocrates associated four physiological factors with personality type and behaviour: blood-sanguine, optimistic; phlegm-phlegmatic, lethargic; yellow bile-choleric, angry and assertive; black bile-melancholic, sad. This process of simplification may be taught to children in nursery rhymes which assign different personalities to boys and girls (sugar and spice) or to children born on different days of the week (Monday’s child is fair of face). The modern adult classifies individuals using astrological signs. The astrological sign uses external data-date of birth, position of planets, etc.—to depict something about the individual’s personality and temperament, and also generates some expectations about the future and fate.
