The ancient Greeks, beautiful poets, wove webs of language to describe and explain the inspiring thoughts and ideas of their time. The poets of Ancient Greece told amazing stories—despite the lack of a word to define the color blue. If they didn’t have a word for it, what did they do to describe it?
Homer’s The Odyssey, is the most cited when claiming that the Ancient Greeks didn’t have a word for the color blue—even if they had names for other colors. The excerpt says from Book V of the Odyssey says, “..when Zeus had blasted and shattered his swift ship with a bright lightning bolt, out on the wine-dark sea.”
According to many historians, a lot of cultures in the past did not have a word for the color blue. The word ‘blue’ is not mentioned once in the New Testament. This fact seems to keep historians intrigued, because if there is not a word for something that exists, our perception of that thing might as well not exist.
Read more on the distinction of blue and green in various languages HERE
