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Re: Fwd: Nabokov & a color question
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Dear Mary,
A long ( too long ) time ago I was taught that "purpureum" had been chosen
because there was no word for "blue" and this is why I questioned the use of
"wine-red" as applied to the sea ( I cannot find the original posting where
this matter was raised).
I found an interesting observation while "googling":
"as boys at school, when, in their distress for a word to lengthen out a
verse, they find purpureus olor, or purpureum mare, may afterwards use the
epithet purpureus with propriety, though they know not what it means, and
have never seen either a swan or the sea, or heard that the swan is of a
light, and the sea of a dark colour".
but I´m still at sea...
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2005 10:29 PM
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 -----
A long ( too long ) time ago I was taught that "purpureum" had been chosen
because there was no word for "blue" and this is why I questioned the use of
"wine-red" as applied to the sea ( I cannot find the original posting where
this matter was raised).
I found an interesting observation while "googling":
"as boys at school, when, in their distress for a word to lengthen out a
verse, they find purpureus olor, or purpureum mare, may afterwards use the
epithet purpureus with propriety, though they know not what it means, and
have never seen either a swan or the sea, or heard that the swan is of a
light, and the sea of a dark colour".
but I´m still at sea...
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2005 10:29 PM
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 -----