Table Of ContentSTUDIES IN GREEK
COLOUR TERMINOLOGY
VOLUME II
XAPOITOE
MNEMOSYNE
BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA BATA V A
COLLEGERUNT
A. D. LEEMAN· H. W. PLEKET · W. J. VERDENIUS
BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT
W. J. VERDENIUS, HOMERUSLAAN 53, ZEIST
SUPPLEMENTUM SEXAGESIMUM SEPTIMUM
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART
STUDIES IN GREEK
COLOUR TERMINOLOGY
VOLUME II
XAPOTTO:E
LUGDUNI BATAVORUM E. J. BRILL MCMLXXXI
STUDIES IN GREEK
COLOUR TERMINOLOGY
VOLUME II
XAPOIIO~
BY
P. G. MAXWELL-STUART
LEIDEN E. J. BRILL 1981
ISBN 90 04 06407 9
Copyright 1981 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche
or a,ry other means without written permission from the publisher
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vn
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vm
I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. Xapo1t6i;: textual evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
(a) Prose writers.............................................. 3
(b) Verse writers.............................................. 26
III. Xapo1t6i;: usage and meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
( a) Historical development of its usage in prose . . . . . . . . 58
(b) Meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
( c) Historical development of its usage in verse......... 61
( d) Symbolic and emotional associations................. 63
( e) Etymology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
(f) Word lists.................................................. 64
Appendices
A. A note on Caelius Aurelianus............................... 69
B. Manuscript confusions over xapo1t6i;........................ 69
C. Hadrian's eyes................................................. 71
D. Arabic translations of xapo1t6i; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
E. Theophilus: De Urinis......................................... 72
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Notes............................................ 80
FOREWORD
In composing this book I have adopted the same method I used
for my discussion of -yAixux6i;, and for the same reasons. Thus,
Chapter II is in the form of a detailed lexicon in which every usage
of xixpo1t6i; first by prose then by verse writers is exhibited and, if
necessary, discussed in detail. The information appears under the
heads of authors who are arranged in alphabetical order. This is to
enable a reader to look up any passage which may have struck him
during his reading, as quickly and conveniently as possible, to see
any obscurities investigated and to note that particular author's use
of xixpo1t6i; as a whole, whether his use be 'normal'-that is, in
accordance with what one may usually expect of the word-or
peculiar. For those who wish for a history of the term's develop
ment, Chapter III provides a chronological survey and notes any
changes of meaning as they occur, along with any symbolic or emo
tional significance which may have been inherent in, or become
attached to, xixpo1t6i; during the course of its usage. Finally,
etymology is discussed and word lists are provided.
Acknowledgement of assistance I have received in connection
with specific points will be found in the footnotes, but I should like
to record here my thanks to Dr. B. F. Whitehead for reading and
confirming my interpretation of Asclepiades' s psychopathology,
Dr. J.T. Killen and Dr. D.J. Crawford for reading and comment
ing upon the typescript as a whole, and Mr. T.R. Bowen for his
continued help and support.
ABBREVIATIONS
For the most part I have followed the abbreviations used by
L 'Annie Philologique. Titles of papyri appear according to the system
adopted in the new LSJM. In addition I have employed
AG Anthologia Graeca.
CCAG Catalogi Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum.
LSJM Liddell-Scott-Jones-McKenzie: Greek-English Lexicon.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
It was my contention in an earlier volume which examined the
colour-term "(Acxux6,; that previous discussions of Greek colour-terms
had usually started from the wrong premises and by confining
themselves to a field of inquiry too narrow to yield satisfactory
results had thus wasted much time and effort in idle speculation
about Greek colour-vision when the groundwork of their studies, an
exact understanding of the colour-terms themselves, had not been
undertaken. I hope that the former study has rectified, in some
measure, a few of these defects, and has indicated what needs fur
ther to be done. One sad misunderstanding, at least, should have
disappeared-that Greek colour-vision was defective. It cannot be
said too strongly that the Greeks had nothing wrong with their eyes
or with their vocabulary. Any usage eccentric or unusual will find
an explanation both in a cultural sensibility which was different
from our own and in our unreasonable or misguided demands upon
their language. 1
Nevertheless, what one can do to recover the precise shades of
meaning and, especially, the symbolism and emotional reverbera
tions of Greek colour-terms is limited by the nature of the evidence
with which one is dealing. No full-scale investigation such as can be
carried out by modern philologists and psychologists is possible
with the ancient Greeks, for obvious reasons. One's objectives,
therefore, must be realistic. It is no use our asking questions which
could be answered only by a living ancient Greek who had our ex
periences ( of artificial colours, for example), and then concluding
that because we do not receive the answers we expected, or answers
in sufficient detail, there must have been something defective about
the ancient language or vision or both. Some proper understanding,
and no more, is all we can hope to acquire.
Since the material upon which one works is almost entirely the
written language, what one uncovers with regard to Greek colour
vision is Bullough's associative process-the meaning of the colour
term as it is applied to various objects, and the emotional attitude
evinced by a number of people at different times as a result of that
2
INTRODUCTION
application. One has no accurate means of telling whether a
favourable or unfavourable judgment upon a colour is caused by
the colour itself or by the object to which it is applied. But if the
term regularly evoked a more or less uniform response from many
different people over a long period of time, as -yAouix6i; did when it
described eyes, for example, one may reasonably infer that it would
evoke that response from most people at most times and therefore
one can describe the general reaction to it as favourable or un
favourable. Practically all one's judgments, however, must be of a
tentative and circumspect nature. 2
One must be careful, then, only to ask such questions as may
stand a reasonable chance of being answered and this, necessary to
a proper understanding of the colour-terms themselves, becomes
essential when investigating the symbolism attached to various col
ours. As. E. Leach has said, 'Even when it is evident that the colour
of something has symbolic significance, we can never be sure what
it is. Each case must be investigated in its particular context. '3 Any
such investigation, however, must be founded upon as precise a
definition of the individual colour-terms as is possible to achieve,
otherwise extrapolation into the blue, a notable feature of many
discussions of Greek colour-vision based largely upon poetic usage,
will ensnare the imagination and trap it in what will turn out to be
little more than a vaporous fancy. 'Science,' wrote Thomas Huxley
once, and his words could apply with equal justice to philology, 'is
nothing but trained and organised common sense, differing from
the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw recruit: and its
methods differ from those of common sense only as far as the
guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a
savage wields his club.'
