The bizarre myth that Ancient Greeks couldn't see blue The bizarre myth that Ancient Greeks couldn't see blue
Perhaps the most conspicuous example is the way Homer talked about the color of the sea. Probably the single most famous phrase from the whole Iliad and Odyssey that is still in common currency today is that immortal color epithet, the “wine-dark sea.”
Guy Deutscher • Through the Language Glass
On the one hand, language is a wonderful tool. It allows us to describe these other worlds in metaphors that help us think and imagine them. But there are many places where our language leaves us in the lurch. Like with vision, we don’t have a word for detecting light but not having a conscious experience of it.
ed yong • What Counts as Seeing
why Homer had such lively and poetic conceptions of light and darkness while being so tight-lipped on prismatic colors.