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> He noticed that the ancient Greek poet Homer used colors in a very strange way (for instance: “wine-dark sea”) It could also be the case that Homer was using
by tehchromic 11y ago
> He noticed that the ancient Greek poet Homer used colors in a very strange way (for instance: “wine-dark sea”)
It could also be the case that Homer was using a complex metaphor that related the mystery of alcohol, and maybe it's brooding hangover to the dark color of the liquid, and linked that to the dark quality of the sea at times, for example before a storm when the sky is overcast.
Great article!
- dudurocha 11y agoYou are probably joking, but to get more perspective on this 'blue' color, there is a great resource: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hoffman_01_13/ http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hoffman_01_13/ <q> We may never know for sure, but one peculiar fact casts the mystery in an interesting light: there is no word for “blue” in ancient Greek. Homer’s descriptions of color in The Iliad and The Odyssey, taken literally, paint an almost psychedelic landscape: in addition to the sea, sheep were also the color of wine; honey was green, as were the fear-filled faces of men; and the sky is often described as bronze. It gets stranger. Not only was Homer’s palette limited to only five colors (metallics, black, white, yellow-green, and red), but a prominent philosopher even centuries later, Empedocles, believed that all color was limited to four categories: white/light, dark/black, red, and yellow. Xenophanes, another philosopher, described the rainbow as having but three bands of color: porphyra (dark purple), khloros, and erythros (red).</q>