Re: Sensory Infixes in rtemmu (was Mauve and a related conlang question)

On Wed, 12 Jun 2002 18:32:51 +0200 Dan Sulani <dnsulani@...>
writes:
> >In Homer, the sea is often purplish (the color of wine, or
> >"porphuros" if I remember the word right.)
>     Now,  I don't know what kind of sea Homer was talking about
> (except that if it was the Mediterranean, it was probably a whole
> lot
> cleaner than it is today!  ;-)  ) under what kind of conditions. And
> I
> don't know what kind of wine he drank. All I _can_ say is that
> the south-eastern end of the Med that I see all the time, when
> under a cloudless blue sky (especially in winter, if the air is
> still and
> cool) is nothing like any wine that I have ever seen! It's a very
> beautiful shade of blue! In fact, I've never seen a purple sea!
> (I've never seen a purple cow, either   ;-)  but that's something
> else!   )
>         Dan Sulani
-

According to www.tekhelet.co.il , Porphyra was the Greek name for the
Murex source of "Tyrian purple", otherwise known as Hebrew |tekhelet|.
So, if |tekhelet| can vary between purple and sky-blue, it makes sense
for Homer to say that the sea is the color of Murex dye.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "where are the warriors
  where are the truth tellers
  where are the fearless dragons
  where are the life creators / life sustainers
  the singers of songs of liberation"
     ~ definitely not in the pages of the evil magazine
       i found this quote on the cover of

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