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.'