#ancient colours

[romegreeceart]

Worshipper, dressed in chiton and cloak, with a bunch of grapes in her hand

* Taranto

* 3rd century BCE

* Archaeological Museum of Taranto

Attribution:

Fabrizio Garrisi, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[ulises-aithon]

Leukothea, the Anemoi and Odysseus 5th Rhapsode by John Flaxman After having a good night out there with the gals and devouring a full on ramen menu, I returned home and went to Instagram to unravel a little, but to my surprise, Fate had other plans. It first sent this reel that was about some comparisons between the Odyssey Spanish translations but, at the end. There was this image:

And that style was absolutely from an english fella: JOHN FLAXMAN. So of course, I knew the image was incomplete as this man adores doing wide panels, so I went to my lovely Ino lover, @laiapolypharmakos

After a small rage session, she gave me the full template she already has:

Now that I had the material and with a spur of creativity I started choosing colours and doing some stuff. First of all I closed the ribbon into a veil and erased Zephyros' beard as it was so strange (like small cones instead of a proper like Odysseus'). After that I started getting sources and inspirations for her...to end up finding that there is a severe lack of Ino/Leukothea content out there. So...I went down the mythographic route, checking the stories themselves. I am quite grateful for this drawing as it has few people in it, just Ino, Odysseus and the four Anemoi that go in tandem. Talking about Characters, let's meet our figures:

Anemoi (Boreas, Zephyros, Notos and Euros)

Sons of Eos and Astraeos, I did not give them too much thought, basing them on Laia's take of them

Leukothea/Ino, daughter of Kadmos.

The star of the show, lighting the dark in which our hero stays. Leukothea. She was a mortal, Ino, before turning into a divine being alongside her son through the Boetian king Athamas, Melikertes; now Palaimon, guardian of ships. She is the reason as to why we have the Argonauticas and the Golden Fleece (Khrysomalos) in the first place! For context, Athamas, a king of Boetia wed Nephele, goddess of clouds, and had Phrixos and Helle. After some shenanigans, Athamas marries Ino, daughter of Kadmos (we are not sure of the reasons as to why they are marrying) and have two sons: Learkhos and Melikertes. After this point, they are quite alright but Ino, starts to worry that neither of her sons will get the throne. Afterall she is the second wife and their sons the seconds after Phrixos (already a teenager) and Helle (which can continue the line).in the succesion line. Anyways, Ino plots and we end up with half the city of Orchomenus starving and a "seer's notice" that we have to sacrifice the eldest prince and princess. Stuff happens and Phrixos and Helle disappear from the map. All cute no? WRONG. After caring and nursing a baby Dionysus, Athamas is turned mad by Hera for caring about the infant god. Athamas kills Learkhos in a quite a gruesome way in Nonnus of Panopolis' account. (Dionysiaca, 10) With the death of her oldest son she takes Melikertes with her and both jump at Delphi to the watery depths and some olympian turns them into deities (Aphrodite, Poseidon and Dionysus depending on the source) Anyways this all what she entails. Now, for the drawing. - Her hair is dark, specifically "Kyaneos" By Nonnu's account. Now we are entering into artistic liberties. For me, Kyaneos does not mean "cyan or blue" but rather deep and dark colours whose tonality veers towards cold, instead of warm and is not yet "Melas" (Black). Reason why she has this hair with small blue highlights. - She is daughter of Kadmos and this mean, Phoenician roots which I really played with and this shows in the veil itself!. The hard part of the ribbon is dyed with hyacinth blue (Hyakinthos) which is also related with Tyrian purple as both were Phoenician top tier manufactures. But, I wanted to add some divine whimsy here with the main colour: Turqouise. Turquoise is one of the earliest gems to be used by humanity and the closest ones to the Aegean where at the Sinai Peninsula. These turqouise have the property of being greener than Iranian turqouises which are the standard and veer to sky blue rocks. (Nora Abdel-Hamid Shalaby, 2016)

This headcanon is from @laiapolypharmakos and is so cute, so much so I had to do it. Meanwhile the pattern of the veil is based on this picture while the white spots, are in this case: PEARLS.

Pearls in the Ancient Mediterranean could only be obtain by three ways: Freshwater mussels, Pinna nobilis and other mussels or imported from the Indian Ocean (Margathifera spp.) Either way the only colour, pearls could have ranged from pink to yellow.

Odysseus, son of Laertes.

Much enduring, much suffering, etc... We all know the drill but in this case he has left Ogygia, and is seeing how a waterbird just turned into a goddess while hearing her speech. For his design we have a lot of stuff going on: - For starters, Odysseus himself. He is dark blonde haired and dark bearded (Xanthos of hair and Kuaneos of beard) as based on my headcanons. (for me, xanthos means bright or sparkly so that's another creative liberty). But, something I surely don't see as often, are the tan lines. Yes, tan lines.

Clothing.

He is wearing a purple pileus (status) and himation, but a special one. Weaved by Kalypso, which @laiapolypharmakos and I, plot down in North African islands, it is inspired by the Amazighs! The Amazighs are a group of people hailing from the area before 10 000 BC! They are insanely ancient and have been there since ever. And they are quite fond of the woad and indigo dyes! Which I used on the himation while the orange hem is based on the traditional patterns some seem to wear.

Meanwhile the himation's pattern are inherently Mykenean, from a fresco of the Palace of Tyrinis, but it was too pretty to dismiss hehehe

And basically, the rest: the sea is in a storm so it's black and the mast is without barnish. Meanwhile my interpretations of the gods in the darkness is that they more or less glow and that's why they are brighter. Thanks so much for reading all this and hope you like it!

[dkniade]

Context: in Ancient Colors act 1 scene 1, Mamere describes Jakob like this:

“是个相当帅气的人哦。而且…而且还很温柔。” (“A rather handsome person~ And… and quite gentle, too.”)

English version: “A rather cool person. And… quite gentle, too.”

T/N

哦 — Added at the end of a declarative sentence to sound softer or more friendly and less… declarative? Some Melusines use this.

帅气 — Has both meanings of “handsome” and “cool” (with a brighter vibe). Can also be used to describe someone’s vibe and not just appearance. More impersonal, like you’re describing something but without the romantic attraction that’s typically associated with calling someone 帅 (handsome). (帅 is used to describe one’s physical appearance…?)

Compare with 酷 which is more “cool” in a… bad boy way? (By human standards Neuvillette could be described as 帅气 but Wriothesley could be described as 酷, I guess.)

Handsome, perhaps because Mamere thinks Jakob is aesthetically pleasing (she’s a painter after all), or because she senses who he really is?

English version uses “cool” which I interpreted as attractive in a level-headed way, but… Hm. Certainly not in a “oh dude that’s so cool” way.

-

Ancient Colors act 2

Mamere: Is it because... you thought he [Jakob] was handsome?

Kaykaus: Oh, so you like purple, do you, Boss?

Irus: What in the world are you talking about, you idiot? Of course not! How's that guy handsome, anyway — also, what kind of reason is "I like purple"!?

Kksjsjsjs wait wait I need to check something

Chinese (transcript wiki page):

玛梅赫：因为…觉得他很帅？

凯伊卡：哦哦，大姐，原来是这样！大姐喜欢紫色？

伊洛丝：笨蛋，说什么啊！怎么可能啊！而且那家伙一点也不帅吧？而且喜欢紫色是什么理由啦！

Oh my god

Mamere does call him handsome, and Kaykaus and Irus basically go

Kaykaus: Ohh, so that’s how it is, sis! You like purple?

Irus: Idiot, the hell are you talking about! You think that’s what it is? And that guy’s not handsome at all, right? And what kind of reason is “I like purple”!?

T/N

大姐 — “sis” as in, female leader of a gang… kind of? Not sure if there’s a better English equivalent. In a sibling context 姐 means older sister. May also be taken as an insult because it makes the other person sound old. It’s complicated.

怎么可能啊！— kind of a rhetorical “How’s that possible!”/“How could that be!”, more directly…?

[crewman-penelope]

@poptod perhaps for writing reference?

[ancientstuff]

Original pigments of 2,000-year-old inscriptions at the temple of Esna revealed

More than 200 years after the rediscovery of an Egyptian temple, a German-Egyptian research team has uncovered the original colors of inscri...

This is a Ptolemaic temple, and an odd little temple at that. Very glad the colours weren’t uncovered before now. They will hopefully be better preserved than they would have 200 years ago.

[romegreeceart]

Contest between Apollo and Hercules for the Delphic tripod

* Temple of Apollo Palatinus, Rome

* 1st century CE

attribution: Sailko, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[romegreeceart]

Ancient clothing

* Taranto

* late 3rd - early 2nd century BCE

* Archaeological Museum of Taranto

Attribution:

Fabrizio Garrisi, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[romegreeceart]

Roman glassware

Figure head from 3rd Century, from excavation before construction of Avala Hotel in Budva, Montenegro. Photo shot in Hist Museum, Cetinje

Attribution: Bjoertvedt, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons