_a._ for wine, as we have seen.
_b._ for copper, Il. iv. 495 _et alibi_.
_c._ for smoke, Od. x. 152.
We have also the Αἰθίοπες, men of the tawny or swarthy countenance,
beneath the Southern sun.
In what manner are we to find a common thread upon which to hang the
colours of iron, copper, horses, lions, bulls, eagles, wine, swarthy
men, and smoke? We must here again adopt the vague word ‘dark,’ a word
of light and not of colour, for the purpose. But as the idea of αἴθω
includes flame struggling with smoke, so there may be a flash of light
upon the dark object. Ψολόεις, sooty or smutty, belongs to the same
group with αἰθαλόεις and αἴθων, and need not, therefore, be separately
discussed.
All the remainder of the words noted for examination are to be dealt
with in two groups, each referable to a single idea: the first that of
motion, and the second that of light.
14, 15. Among adjectives of motion, which have sometimes been
improperly treated as adjectives of colour, are ἄργος and αἴολος.
The former acquires an affinity to _white_, because it may signify
an object which, from being rapidly moved, assumes in the light the
appearance of whiteness[845], and along with it may be placed its
derivatives ἀργεννὸς, ἀργεστὴς, ἀργὴς, ἀργινόεις, ἀργιόδους, ἀργίπους,
and ἀργικέραυνος. The latter, as in αἴολος ὄφις, αἴολος ἵππος,
κορυθαίολος, πόδας αἴολος, seems to mean whatever from the same cause
appears to shift its hues.
[845] See Achæis, or Ethnology, p. 383.
16. Of those adjectives of light in Homer, which have also been taken
for adjectives of colour, the most important is γλαυκός. Its uses,
however, are only as follows:
_a._ γλαυκὴ θάλασσα, Il. xvi. 34.
_b._ Γλαυκῶπις, the standing epithet, and even a proper name, of
Minerva, Il. viii. 406.
_c._ γλαυκιόων; applied to the eye of a lion, when, reaching the height
of his wrath, he makes his rush at the hunters, Il. xx. 172.
The last of these passages seems effectually to fix the sense of the
term. The word γλαυκιόων describes a progression. The lion does not
enhance the colour of his eye as he waxes angry. If, for example,
γλαυκὸς can be taken as blue, it certainly does not become more blue:
on the contrary, rage, when kindling fire in the eye, rather subdues
its peculiar tint by flooding it with a vivid light. So the word
seems clearly to refer to the brightening flash of the eye under the
influence of passion. Of light and its movement, as also of sound,
and of beautiful form, Homer’s conceptions are even more distinct
and lively, than those of colour are, if not dull, yet at least
indeterminate.
Γλαυκὸς is derived from γλαύσσω; and has for its root λάω, to see. The
meaning of bright or flashing will suit the sea, as well as the epithet
blue. And it suits Minerva far better. ‘Blue-eyed’ would be for her but
a tame epithet. The luminous eye, on the contrary, entirely accords
with her character, and belongs to a marked trait of those primitive
traditions, which she appears to represent[846].
[846] See Olympus, sect. ii. p. 53. Welcker (_Griechische Götterlehre_,
vi. 63, p. 300) treats the name Ἀθήνη as immediately akin to αἰθὴρ and
the idea of light.
17. Χάροπος is applied to the lion in Od. xi. 611; and it is the
proper name of the father of Nireus in the Catalogue, while his mother
is Ἀγλαΐη. From this latter use we see that χάροπος is not in Homer
an epithet of colour; since he never describes the face by means of
colour. Its etymology refers us to gladsomeness; and this is much more
connected, in the Poet’s mind, with light than with colour.