1. The redness of blood.
2. The purple proper, as of the sea in Il. i. 482. To this also probably belongs the rainbow, of whose seven colours three may be said to belong to the family of blue: and which is termed blue by Shakespeare.
3. The grey and leaden colour of a dark cloud when about to burst in storm, and of a river when disturbed.
We shall hereafter see reason to suppose that the word may also and often mean what is tawny or brown.
Of κύανος and κυάνεος.
4. The word κυάνεος is very important in this inquiry; and unfortunately it is not less obscure.
It at once throws us back on the prior question, what was κύανος? But this question remains almost wholly undetermined[842]; so that we must follow, as well as we can, the Homeric applications of the word itself, together with its adjective and its compounds. These are very numerous. First we have the substantive κύανος introduced in three places: in each of which it evidently belongs to a combination of colours as well as of substances.
a. Once it is κύανος simply. The interior wall of the hall of Alcinous is covered with sheets of copper[843]; and round the top is a θριγκὸς or fringe of κύανος. Od. vii. 87.
b. Twice it is μέλας κύανος. On the breast-plate of Agamemnon there are twenty stripes or layers of tin, twelve of gold, and ten μέλανος κυάνοιο. Il. xi. 24, Also;