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Fwd: RE: Nabokov & a color question
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If I recall correctly, the Greeks used a form of highly concentrated wine,
which was mixed with water before drinking. Thus it might indeed have been
very, very dark.
David
(Powelstock)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Donald B. Johnson
> Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2005 9:29 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fwd: Nabokov & a color question
>
> Please forgive this question re Homer. Where else should I have asked?
>
> Jansy wrote: ". . . The homeric "purpureum" might not
> necessarily refer to a "wine-red sea" but to the absence of a
> word for blue. . ."
>
> Was there no word for blue when Homer wrote? I have heard
> that blue is the last color to be named in every language,
> but have heard no definite reason why this is so. What about
> Athena's glaucous eyes, which Andrew Lang translated as gray
> eyes and which somebody interpreted, in a program about
> Ulysses, as eyes of the most brilliant blue that television
> could produce?
> Was the sea wine-red because there was no word for blue?
> (I've not seen the Mediterranean, but I've seen red wine and
> it's hard to imagine any sea that color or any shade of
> "wine-dark". Maybe unfermented juice of purple or black
> grapes? Or maybe on rare occasions, as during an unusual
> sunset? Or maybe I don't party often enough.)
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
----- End forwarded message -----
which was mixed with water before drinking. Thus it might indeed have been
very, very dark.
David
(Powelstock)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Donald B. Johnson
> Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2005 9:29 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fwd: Nabokov & a color question
>
> Please forgive this question re Homer. Where else should I have asked?
>
> Jansy wrote: ". . . The homeric "purpureum" might not
> necessarily refer to a "wine-red sea" but to the absence of a
> word for blue. . ."
>
> Was there no word for blue when Homer wrote? I have heard
> that blue is the last color to be named in every language,
> but have heard no definite reason why this is so. What about
> Athena's glaucous eyes, which Andrew Lang translated as gray
> eyes and which somebody interpreted, in a program about
> Ulysses, as eyes of the most brilliant blue that television
> could produce?
> Was the sea wine-red because there was no word for blue?
> (I've not seen the Mediterranean, but I've seen red wine and
> it's hard to imagine any sea that color or any shade of
> "wine-dark". Maybe unfermented juice of purple or black
> grapes? Or maybe on rare occasions, as during an unusual
> sunset? Or maybe I don't party often enough.)
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
----- End forwarded message -----