_a._ Copper in Il. ix. 365.
_b._ Nectar, Il. xix. 38.
_c._ Wine, Od. v. 93.
_d._ Blood: in ἐρυθαίνω, Il. x. 484.
3. πορφύρεος again is the Latin _purpura_, and our ‘purple,’ as well as
our ‘porphyry.’ In the uses of this word we shall find for the first
time a startling amount of obvious discrepancy: and it will require to
be considered in the proper place, whether this discrepancy is to be
referred to a bold exercise of the Poet’s art, or to an undeveloped
knowledge and a consequently defective standard of colour.
The word πορφύρεος is employed as follows for objects of sense:
_a._ Blood, Il. xvii. 361.
_b._ Dark cloud, ibid. 551.
_c._ Wave of a river when disturbed, Il. xxi. 326.
_d._ Wave of the sea, Il. i. 482; and the disturbed sea, Il. xvi. 391.
_e._ The ball with which the Phæacian dancers played, Od. viii. 373.
_f._ Garments, as Il. viii. 221; Od. iv. 115.
_g._ Carpets, as Od. xxi. 151; Il. xxiv. 645.
_h._ The rainbow, Il. xvii. 547.
_i._ Metaphorically it is applied to Death, Il. v. 83: and, as it would
appear, to bloody death only.