This work applies the meaning of empsychia (animation) to the domain of graphe empsychos (animated word or image) using some funerary orations written by Gregory of Naziansus (IV-th century) and Michael Psellos (XI-th century). In our opinion, a certain continuity of this Byzantine tradition could be traced in the Romanian culture of the XVI-th century.

This essay intends to reveal the contribution of some Aristotelian concepts – such as “just measure” (metron, meson) and “lack of measure” (alloiosis) as well as some other connected pathological affections (pathe) of the human volitive part of the soul (thymos), caused by certain changes of the humoral mixtures, especially the ones of the black bile, a humoral substance that was considered largely responsible for the severe alterations of the normal rational activity of the human soul (logismos). – to the (...) definition of melancholy as a natural/pathological condition. This type of analysis could be useful for wider cultural studies in which certain medical traditions would have a significant contribution and would help us understand better the holistic thought of the ancient and medievalEuropean culture. (shrink)