Why The Ancient Greeks Couldn't See Blue

This BLUE my mind, I just had to share.

Written by Mitchell Moffit
Editing by Luka Šarlija and Mitchell Moffit

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[trustmeimmexican]

Because, back then, everything was black and white. Trust me. I've seen it in movies.

[fruitcake]

The language part is also seen when a child doesn’t recognise swearing until they know the word

[Amethyst]

"Tchelet" (sky blue) is mentioned repeatedly in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus in the plans for the Tabernacle and priestly garments.
Also, lapis lazuli has been prized since antiquity as the colour of the gods. Blue sapphire stones were treasured, and also costly garments were dyed blue with dye made of snails.

[drheathersebo]

The details and decoration on early archaic Greek statues were painted with azurite which gives that brilliant blue colour, traces of which survive.

[irok]

Can't wait for the sequel in 2020 years when they say "These people couldn't see the color Lepu"

[RandomStuff-helu]

Redheads are called redheads even though they clearly have orange hair because English didn't have a word for orange until quite recently and so orange was once considered a shade of red and yellow.

[stevesloan]

"To venture out upon the wine dark sea." There was some speculation that Homer may have been using the color of deep red wine in a terra cotta cup to describe the color of the sea at a certain time of day. As in early dawn when the Sun is at a low angle and the tide is right for sailing or starting a journey. Translation of ancient languages into the modern is an art, not a science. It must take into account both the literal as well as the "felt" meaning (i.e., the emotional content) which the ancient author's phrase actually carried. And to get that right is no mean feat.

[elisabenincaso]

As others have mentioned, ancient Greek statues and architecture were painted and not white. One of the colors used was blue. Apparently, they could see it well enough to paint with it.

[KARATEbyJesse]

Ancient Japanese didn’t have a word for green. 🇯🇵 It was just a shade of blue. They still call the stoplights red and blue, even though it’s green! 🚦

[_Envous]

It’s 5020

“Why these people couldn’t see Gyret, Brimple, Prattle, Bete, and Ornhack.”

[SolveEtCoagula]

I can vouch for the idea of being trained to see different 'colours'. When I worked in a laboratory which made colouring for the food and cosmetic industry, I had to learn minute, subtle differences in shades of similar colours. Initially, I couldn't 'see' them, and thought I would never be able to match them. But, after a few months I did begin to notice the very small differences, and this ability grew with time and experience. One day, out of curiosity, I went back to the two samples I had been shown on my first day of work. I was astonished with the differences I now perceived, and couldn't believe that I didn't recognise them when starting out.

[sandrokottos]

Ancient India had several mentions of blue. Shiva is also called Neelakantha or the “blue throated one”. Similarly, another name for Vishnu is Nilesh, which simply means “the blue God”. Vishnu (and his avatars Ram and Krishna) are often depicted blue in colour.

[aarnaasharma]

Imagine 10 thousand years later somebody making a video :
Why ancient millennials and Gen-Z's couldn't see the colour "Terp"

[earburnerspodcast]

Imagine being alive when the Blue DLC dropped.

[Patrick_Engels]

When studying art, one of the first examples for this that is given is Brown and Yellow.
They seem so different to us, but brown is just a very dark yellow (sometimes mixed with red)

[farinozcelik]

Ancient texts do not mention oxygen. Therefore, it did not exist back then.

[aliciakoepke]

This actually makes so much sense. As a kid cyan was just blue, beige was yellow, lime was green, magenta was pink etc.

[BionicPig]

One writer from a region of the world doesn’t mention a particular colour.
“Guess the people from that region were unable to see that colour”.

[saiz]

In the Sanskrit language from India, one of the oldest languages in the world predating the Christian era, the word blue is mentioned as Nila. The Hindu god Shiv is sometimes referred to as Nilkantha. So the utterance of the word blue predates all other languages in the world.

[Apollo_Dionysus_Hermes]

"The human brain is the most complicated thing in the universe."
- The human Brain