Colors in Ancient Greek

[Diachronix]

I’ve attempted to put together an Ancient Greek color palette (see image reference), which I realize can never be totally precise and is likely a mixed bag of anachronisms. I’ve already received some great advice on another forum. So I thought I’d cross-post it here to share and hopefully get more advice/feedback.

I’ve based my color choices off of various definitions and descriptions from different sources. Here’s the general framework that I’m working around. All adjectival forms are neuter à la Modern Greek (matching with τὸ χρῶμα).

Here are my 2 ultimate goals with this little project:

1 - Come up with specific colors (or color spectra) that represent (with a reasonable degree of accuracy/objectivity) the descriptions we encounter in Greek texts in order to visualize (with a reasonable degree of accuracy/objectivity) what various authors had in mind (without consideration for symbolism and metaphor).

2 - Be able to label colors (or color spectra) in the real world (with a reasonable degree of accuracy/objectivity) using the available Ancient Greek terms in a way that might comport with how an ancient would label them, hypothetically.

Here’s my main reference (aside from various lexicons), which I footnote: http://imbs.uci.edu/~kjameson/ECST/Warbuton_AncientColorCategories.pdf

BLACK

1. μέλαν / μελανόν / μελάγχιμον - very black, dark, murky
2. κελαινόν - black, dark, murky, swarthy (race), metallic black
3. ἐρεμνόν - murky

GRAY

1. πολιόν - (like λευκόν) gray hair, bright, clear, hoary (from age)
2. φαιόν - dusky, dun

WHITE

1. λευκόν - white, bright
2. λευκανθές - white-blossoming, blanched/bleached

RED

1. οἶνοψ - (Epic) wine-colored
2. καρύκινον - crimson, scarlet-colored, from κόκκος a kernel, the grain or berry of the ilex coccifera; these berries are the clusters of eggs of a female insect, the kermes ((cf. English carmine, crimson)), and when collected and pulverized produce a red which was used in dyeing, Pliny, h. n. 9, 41, 65; 16, 8, 12; 24, 4)
3. φοινόν - blood-red
4. ἐρυθρόν - the color of nectar and wine, blood, copper, gold
5. κόκκινον - (later) scarlet,

ORANGE

1. πυρρόν / πυρσόν / πύρινον - flame-colored, yellowish-red

YELLOW

1. ξουθόν - yellowish, brown-yellow, tawny
2. μήλινον - quince-yellow
3. θειῶδες - sulphureous; of colour, yellow (sulfur-colored)
4. ξανθόν - various shades of golden hair, blonde

GREEN

1. χλωρόν (χλοερόν) - greenish-yellow, pale-green, light-green, grassy, yellow (of honey/sand), (generally) pale, bleached
2. πράσινον - leek-green, light green

BLUΕ

1. γλαυκόν - (later) bluish green or grey (of the olive); light blue (eyes), grey
2. χαροπόν - (later) light-blue or bluish-gray; bright eye color
3. κυανοῦν / κυάνεον / κύανον - dark-blue, glossy-blue (sea); dark, black; brunette

PURPLE

1. ὑακίνθινον - blackish-red, blackish-blue
2. ἰόεν (masc. - ἰόεις) - dark purple/violet
3. ἁλουργές - sea-purple, genuine purple
4. πορφυροῦν / πορφύρεον - dark-red, crimson
5. ὄρφνινον - brownish gray, a mix of black, red & white
6. φοινικοῦν / φοινίκεον / φοῖνιξ - purple-red, crimson (Phoenician/Tyrian purple)
7. ῥόδινον - rose colored, pink

Based on Xenophon, I’ve added “καρύκινον” to the ‘dark-red’ section and added a more purple hue to “ὄρφνινον” - since the brownish color I had looked out of place between “πορφυροῦν” and “φοινικοῦν”.

That does seem to be the implication in Xenophon’s “Cyropaedia” (8.3.3) -

ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῖς κρατίστοις διέδωκε τὰς καλλίστας στολάς, ἐξέφερε δὴ καὶ ἄλλας Μηδικὰς στολάς, παμπόλλας γὰρ παρεσκευάσατο, οὐδὲν φειδόμενος οὔτε πορφυρίδων οὔτε ὀρφνίνων οὔτε φοινικίδων οὔτε καρυκίνων ἱματίων.

And when he had distributed among the noblest the most beautiful garments, he brought out other Median robes, for he had had a great many made, with no stint of purple or sable or red or scarlet or crimson cloaks.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0032,007:8:3:3&lang=original

My lingering doubt is regarding whether or not κόκκινον should be set dead center in the ‘bright red’ box. If there were any evidence that κόκκινον were equivalent/interchangeable with ἐρυθρόν, I would be persuaded to shift things around. But the brighter hue corresponding with the ‘red’ in the rainbow seems to be appropriate.

[cb1]

Hi, I think your approach is a useful way of setting out the colours, recognising that some of this remains guess-work and that the ancient division of colours does not always map neatly onto ours.

There are some colours missing from your list (e.g. ὠχρόν and others): there’s a useful list of colour words in e.g. the Lexique nouveau de la langue grecque (2006), pages 160–1, which lists vocabulary by theme, in case helpful.

Could you also list, for each colour, the types of things it’s been attributed to in ancient texts (the LSJ entries for each colour will help here?).

Cheers, Chad

[bedwere]

Last year Christophe Rico told us to consult this:

Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine

[Diachronix]

There are some colours missing from your list (e.g. ὠχρόν and others):

Thanks! I’ve added ὠχρόν to the YELLOW section next to ξανθόν. That seems like an appropriate placement, considering that it seems to be a (pale) yellow color. Considering that it has an instance of attribution to a frog, perhaps it should go across the boarder between YELLOW and GREEN?

there’s a useful list of colour words in e.g. the Lexique nouveau de la langue grecque (2006), pages 160–1, which lists vocabulary by theme, in case helpful.

I’m sure that would be very helpful if it fills in the blanks. For $27 on Amazon, I certainly hope it would be worth it. I’ve kind of blown my book budget for December. So maybe I’ll get it in January. If anyone can check this for me, and note anything I’m missing from that list, it would be very helpful.

Could you also list, for each colour, the types of things it’s been attributed to in ancient texts (the LSJ entries for each colour will help here?).

I could. I just like the simplicity of the chart as is and I’m worried about bogging it down with text. I actually have this set up in a private database with tooltips (for my own reference), that list the LSJ entries and examples. But the image you see is an export file that doesn’t include any of that metadata in the image.

[jeidsath]

ξουθόν - The LSJ mentions that it’s also used to refer to blood, and by the same author that uses it for a wolf.

An initial color chart of just some basic color words, that we’d expect, say, the average Greek in 4th century Athens (or pick a time and place) to use, might give the poetic or uncommon (sometimes extremely uncommon) words a context. There also must have been much more overlap in usage than this presentation would make it look like.

[bedwere]

ξουθόν - The LSJ mentions that it’s also used to refer to blood, and by the same author that uses it for a wolf.

An initial color chart of just some basic color words, that we’d expect, say, the average Greek in 4th century Athens (or pick a time and place) to use, might give the poetic or uncommon (sometimes extremely uncommon) words a context. There also must have been much more overlap in usage than this presentation would make it look like.

I suggest that for each color the word frequencies from Perseus be included in the table. E.g., ξουθός - 29 Max. - 29 Min.

[Diachronix]

ξουθόν - The LSJ mentions that it’s also used to refer to blood, and by the same author that uses it for a wolf.

Thanks! I’ve added a strip of blood-red to the specturm of ξουθόν.

I suggest that for each color the word frequencies from Perseus be included in the table. E.g., ξουθός - 29 Max. - 29 Min.

Yeah, I’m trying to keep it (perhaps overly) simplistic. I really wouldn’t want to include numbers on the chart, if that’s what you mean. Perhaps I’ll simply put together a separate sheet with references, examples and data for people to do more digging on their own. But thanks for the suggestion.