Religious Malancholy. Etiolpgical Approaches Cover Image

Религиозната меланхолия. Етиологични ракурси
Religious Malancholy. Etiolpgical Approaches

Author(s): Zhorzheta Cholakova
Subject(s): Philosophy, Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history, Studies of Literature, History of ideas
Published by: Пловдивски университет »Паисий Хилендарски«
Keywords: melancholy; humoral theory; Aristotel̉̉’s Problema XXX; Petrarch; R. Burton; J. A. Komenský
Summary/Abstract: The religious type of melancholy reflects the crisis of human consciousness as regards the sacral. Its first but singular instances can be found in Homer’s Iliad. Dominant throughout Antiquity was the humoral treatment of melancholy as a disease from which both the body and soul suffered. In his treatise Problema XXX Aristotle uses a new semantic emphasis, associating melancholy with genius. The Renaissance vindication of the antique philosophy of Plato and Aristotle was a prerequisite for a debate with the Christian axiology of dolourism and martyrism, which, as early as the XIV century, involved the problem of creative inspiration. In the course of historical evolution, melancholy turned from a diagnosis into an ethos. This process is illustrated in the article through the works of Petrarch, R. Burton и J. A. Komenský.