That's interesting: it seems to us that there are seven colors in the rainbow. No, the word “seems” is inappropriate: we know that there are seven colors in the rainbow.
And they are located in a certain order.
There are even sayings to remember: "Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting." Or a more hooligan version: "How once Jean the bell ringer blew a lantern with his head."
We also know that cornflowers are blue. And the sea is also blue. The sky is most often blue. And wine is red or white. (As a last resort, green, but that's only in literature.)
No one will tell the waiter - dear, serve us some blue wine!
Hopefully most of the readers agree with the above.
But the ancient Greeks would not agree. They had a completely different color coordinate system.
The Hellenes called irises, periwinkles, and cornflowers red, green, or black, but not blue.
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You will probably say - maybe this is a translation error?
No, for these blue flowers, for example, the adjective erythros is used (compare with the word "erythrocyte").
Now let's move on to the rainbow. Many ancient scholars have described it.
And now attention: Aristotle, Epicurus, Seneca, Ammianus Marcellinus and other, less well-known authors - absolutely all of them describe the rainbow, without mentioning blue at all.
Medieval science picked up this baton: in the XII century. many European scientists will describe a rainbow, but
One possible explanation: blue has long been beyond the bounds of decency. Firstly, it was often the color of mourning, and secondly, it evoked associations with barbarians, who were blue-eyed and, in addition, painted bodies with blue paint.
But in "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" everything is in order with the blue: the sea is blue, and the Don is blue.
True, the wine is also blue.
So the perception of color changes from century to century and from culture to culture.
The quote and facts are taken from Michel Pasturo's book Blue. History of color"