Ochoin wrote:One thing is certain: the monkeys were NOT blue as the colour blue did not exist in ancient times.
yes, you heard me: no blue.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/what ... lor-2015-2Homer's "wine dark sea" is further proof. We see blue sea, he saw water the colour of wine-lees.
donald
Except that Blue did exist.
Blue is one of the colours of the rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Anyone seeing defracted light in the form of a rainbow or through a prism would be able to see blue.
Woad gives a blue dye.
The brick work on the Ishtar gate is blue.
This freco from Crete
Those are just a couple of examples that I can think of.
The Homeric phrase has been discussed by people who are a lot cleverer than me, I don't think it is considered to be as conclusive as the article suggests, the argument being that Homer says 'wine dark' he doesn't say wine coloured.
Minoan Blue Monkeys