Abstract
UPON reading Dr. Pole's two papers (NATURE, vol. xviii. pp. 676, 700) my first feeling was to ask: “But how could ‘The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle’ know anything at all about colour?” Presuming, however, that the tradition of his blindness might be unwarranted, and further, that it may be a mistake to suppose, as many do, that the “Iliad” is a collection of rhapsodies by different poets, I again asked myself: “Are there in Homer more anomalies in the nomenclature of colours than may be accounted for by the vague use of words? Are there more than we should find in this country among uneducated men of the labouring class?” About two years ago I made extensive inquiry as to the prevalence of colour-blindness among children, and in the village schools of this part of Somersetshire I found that the girls could name the neutral as well as the other tints readily and correctly, but that many of the boys had but about half-a-dozen words to use, and would refer orange to red or to yellow, and purple to brown or to blue, merely for want of terms; for they could match the test papers with other papers, or with the girls’ dresses.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
PRIOR, R. Was Homer Colour-Blind?. Nature 19, 119–120 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/019119b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019119b0
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.