k. Thetis puts on mourning garments for Patroclus, when about to appear to Achilles, Il. xxiv. 93.
κάλυμμ’ ἕλε δῖα θεάων
κυάνεον· τοῦ δ’ οὔτι μελάντερον ἔπλετο ἔσθος.
Here Homer is careful to inform us that the κάλυμμα, or hood and mantle, was the blackest garment possible; and, since in Il. iv. 287 we find that he was acquainted with pitch, we need not scruple to assume that here he speaks literally, and either means a real black, which, nevertheless, he also calls κυάνεον, or sees no difference between the genuine black and the colour of κύανος.
l. When the wave of Charybdis retires, the shore appears ψάμμῳ κυανέῃ. Now the colour of sea-sand, when it has just been left by the wave, is a dull but also rather a light brown.
We take now the compounds.
1. κυανοχαίτης is applied
a. To Neptune, e. g. Il. xv. 174.
b. To a mare, Il. xx. 224.
2. κυανῶπις is applied to Amphitrite, or the sea, beating on rocks, Od. xii. 60.