Anomaly and Norm
The Adaptability of Life Between Anatomy and Biology
Why is it that those who have been extraordinary in philosophy, politics, poetry and in various arts appear to be melancholics, and some even to the point of suffering from illnesses due to black bile? Such was Heracles, according to heroic myths, as it seems he also had this nature, and it is precisely referring to him that the ancients called epilepsy a “sacred disease”… The same is said about Ajax and Bellerophon: one went completely out of his mind, while the other went searching for places where he could retire to live in solitude…
It seems that many other heroes were affected in a similar way, as well as, in more recent times, Empedocle, Platon, Socrates and many more important men.
