Any freshman literature student, whether aclassicist or not, is acquainted with Homeric epithets: the “wine-dark sea” andthe “rosy-fingered dawn”. They are both poetic figures and mnemonic devicesfrequent in epic poetry that is composed and delivered orally. Although thispoetry is partly improvisational, these formulas allowed the poet to composecomplex verses sort of on the fly, which makes his work more similar to theprocess of assembling a Meccano than solving a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle in hismind.
The problem is some of these epithets are so recurrent, you never thinkabout their meaning. “Wine-dark sea”? Yes, poetic. Yes, evocative. TheMediterranean at night, perhaps? But, come on, in what sense is the sea “winecolored”? But a century and a half ago, William Gladstone (yes, that WilliamGladstone) discovered that Homer’s use of colors is very, very strange. Oxenare also described as wine-colored(?). Wool is violet. So is iron (!). Honey and faces that are pale with fearare… green. It seems as if Homer was had some sort of weird chromaticperception problem. Gladstone, like many nineteenth-century intellectuals, wasa Greek geek, and he decided to catalog all mentions of colors in the twoHomeric epics. In addition to all of these anomalies, he also uncovered oneincredible absence: not a single mention of the color blue.
Ten years later, a German-Jewishphilologist called Lazarus Geiger discovered that the color blue was alsoabsent from the entire ancient canon: ancient Greek texts, Icelandic sagas,ancient Chinese literature, Vedic hymns and even the Bible. Amazingly, not asingle ancient culture describes the sky as blue. Experiments have proven thathunter-gatherers can’t distinguish blue from green until they are taught theword. Before that, it’s all green to them (although they—like the ancientGreeks, Chinese and Icelanders—are genetically the same as everyone else).Geiger discovered that there was even a sequence in which cultures acquirewords for colors: first, all cultures have black and white, then red, thenyellow, green and finally blue. Which creates a gaggle of fascinatingconundrums. Did the Greeks see blue? Do children see blue?
For the development of this mystery, listen tothis Radiolab podcast (thethird section, “Why Isn’t the Sky Blue?” deals with Homer, but I recommendlistening to the entire hour-long episode). I’m always recommending This American Life. Radiolab has always come in second in my affections because it ismore science-oriented and slightly more baroque in its production (the use ofsilences, the weird kubrikesque music that marks transitions, etc.). But this edition of the podcast is mind blowing and indispensable if you are a literary translator.
Miguel Llorens is a freelance financial translator based in Madrid who works from Spanish into English. He is specialized in equity research, economics, accounting, and investment strategy. He has worked as a translator for Goldman Sachs, the US Government's Open Source Center, and H.B.O. International. To contact him, visit his website and write to the address listed there. You can also join his LinkedIn network by visiting the profile or follow him on Twitter.
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