La malattia delle figlie del sole: mania, malinconia e mal d'amore dal mito alle fonti scientifiche

Ancient medical and philosophical sources do not discuss the etiology of lovesickness, simply cataloguing its symptoms. The 'informal' connection between black bile and lovesickness turns, in later texts, into a disease in whick black bile overheats, changing its nature (in CH it is a cold and dry element), burning and producing smoke. The article analyze this 'ontological' changement; the Pseudoaristotelian Problema XXX can help in reconstructing the sense of the mythological stories of Pasiphae, Medea, Ariadne and Phaedra, women bound by a close family relationship.