I had hoped for more about the word "blue" rather than the pigments,
etc. And now I have some more questions, especially inspired by Don
Johnson. Do we know whether the Greeks - Homeric or classical - had a word
for blue that covered nearly as much as "blue" does in English - blue
flowers and birds, pigments and gemstones and other stone, eyes, sky, sea
and other waters, rainbow band? Our "cyan" is, I think, quite limited. Do
we know whether "kuanous" is that same color? The rainbow brings up
questions on its own: Is there any agreement about whether it has six
colors or seven? Do the bands (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, {indigo},
violet) have designated (by the appropriate scientists) wave-lengths? Did
the Greeks name the rainbow colors? Other languages?

Thanks for any information, or accessible references.

Mary Krimmel

 

This is an interesting line for discussion, although I don't know that it has particular application to VN. I did hear Colin Wilson, on tv while I still watched it, state that the Greeks were colour-blind, and that the "wine-dark sea" meant that they couldn't tell the difference between red and whatever colour the sea is. I thought it a ridiculous statement at the time. My Greek isn't good enough, I hasten to confess. However, blue is a colour which seems to carry strange resonances in literature, and I must try Pastoureau's book. The Icelandic saga writers associated it with portentous events: approaching death-dealers tended to wear blue, sometimes blue was worn by Odin himself. They also referred to Africa as the land of the blue men. Blue still suggests melancholy. Novalis wrote about the Land of the Blue Flower, so did Frances Hodgson Burnett. Housman's line is well-remembered.

 

But does blue have any existence apart from its perception by humans?  Can it in fact really be a substantive?  Perhaps a philosopher on the list knows the answer. 

 

Charles