_a._ To Neptune, e. g. Il. xv. 174.
_b._ To a mare, Il. xx. 224.
2. κυανῶπις is applied to Amphitrite, or the sea, beating on rocks, Od.
xii. 60.
3. κυανόπεζα is used for the foot of a beautiful table (Il. xi. 628).
Here possibly substance may be designated rather than colour. Metal at
the foot would give steadiness to a table.
4. We have κυανόπρωρος and κυανοπρώρειος for the prow of a ship.
Evidently it is the coloured prow: for otherwise the prow would be of
the same hue with the rest of the ship. (Il. xv. 693, _et alibi_.) So
the prows of ships are called μιλτοπάρηοι, in Il. ii. 637, and Od. ix.
125. Now μίλτος was red earth or ochre; and yet it seems that Homer
uses μιλτοπάρηος as equivalent to κυανόπρωρος. For the first epithet is
applied in the Catalogue to the ships led by Ulysses; and the second in
Od. x. 127 to the vessel in which he sailed.
The uses of this group of words thus appear to exhibit a degree of
indefiniteness, hardly reconcilable with the supposition that Homer
possessed accurate ideas of colour. There is no one colour that can
cover them all. The hood of Thetis is closely akin to black; the prow
of a ship to at least a dull red; the sand is of russet or a lightish
brown; the cloud a leaden grey; the hair and eyebrows are of a deep
but not a dull colour; the cornice in the hall of Alcinous must have
been in relief and contrast as compared with the copper wall, and
sufficiently light or clear to strike the eye at a distance, in an
interior lighted at night only from the ground. With perhaps this
exception, the word ‘dark’ will cover all the uses of κυάνεος: but dark
derives its force from a relation to light, and not to colour.
~_Of φοίνιξ, πόλιος._~
5. Φοίνιξ in Homer is clearly a word descriptive of colour: but it as
clearly partakes of the indefinite character attaching to the other
words of the class.
_a._ The blood drawn by Pandarus from Menelaus is compared to the
colour φοίνιξ, used for staining ivory. In this simile, the sense leans
to red, especially as the hue of ivory is so near to that of flesh
(Il. iv. 141). It is mentioned in other places, probably with the same
sense, as an ornamental dye.
_b._ In Il. xxiii. 454, we learn that one of the horses of Diomed was
φοίνιξ, with a round white mark on his forehead. Whether we render this
bay or chestnut, it is materially different from the red colour of
blood.
_c._ Φοίνιος is used for blood, Od. xviii. 96.
_d._ As is φοινὸς in Il. xvi. 159.
_e._ And φοινικόεις in Il. xxiii. 716. This word is also applied to a
cloak, Il. x. 133.
_f._ A dragon or serpent, borne by an eagle, is φοινήεις, apparently
because dappled or streaked with his own blood, Il. xii. 200-6, 218-21.
_g._ Ships are φοινικοπάρηοι, Od. xi. 123, and xxiii. 272: this word is
apparently synonymous with μιλτοπάρηοι.
_h._ The serpent is δάφοινος ἐπὶ νῶτα, Il. ii. 308. And we have the
δάφοινον δέρμα λέοντος, Il. x. 23.
On the whole, we trace here not less than three senses: that in which
φοίνιξ is applied to the horse, which appears to be the equivalent
of ξανθὸς, the more prevailing word: next, that of the tawny and
dull-coloured lion’s hide: then that of the brighter but yet deep
colour of blood, which is freely called πορφύρεος. So that φοίνιξ
merely renders other words, and does not at all assist to make up
deficiencies in the Homeric vocabulary for the expression of colour.
Considered as an epithet of colour, the word δάφοινος, meaning
blood-red, is inappropriate to the dragon or serpent, and further
serves to illustrate that vagueness, of which the signs multiply as we
proceed.